


Through the Eyes of a Frog Prince

by MistyKoopa



Category: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-05-20 11:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 57,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14893989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyKoopa/pseuds/MistyKoopa
Summary: We know Super Mario RPG as told by the plumber, but what about the story of the smallest party member with the biggest heart? Through the Eyes of a Frog Prince tells Mallow's story, from how he ended up at Tadpole Pond, to the time the heroes confront Smithy, and all the Star Pieces in between featuring both familiar lines, and brand new scenes and dialog.





	1. A Lost Piece of Fluff

Valentina absent-mindedly fiddled with her pen and sighed. Being the highest-ranking citizen of Nimbus Land, after the King and Queen, was fairly dull work, and today was no exception. Stretching, she stood up and walked to the window. Hills and valleys spread out across western Mushroom Kingdom far below, much of it gleaming white with fresh snow. Thanks to Nimbus Land, of course.  
“Another job well done, not that any of those mushroom idiots has a clue of where the weather comes from. Or that it involves paperwork. Still, this thankless work isn’t without its perks.” Such as being the next in line for the throne. Valentina glanced up at her fancy bird-themed clock, a gift from the king. “Nearly time. I’d better get out there and get those losers assembled.  
Valentina left her office and set off to the front of the palace. Once outside Valentina cleared her throat and started speaking. “Alright everybody, shuddap and get over here now. King Nimbus has something important to announce so hurry up.”  
Curious citizens began to gather around the entrance, gossiping amongst themselves. Right on cue King and Queen Nimbus stepped outside, ending the chatter.  
“Citizens of Nimbus Land,” King Cumulus Nimbus began. “My wife and I have wonderful news to share with you today. At last, after several years of waiting, we are delighted to announce that we are expecting a baby!”  
Valentina’s smile froze on her face as everyone else erupted into cheers. Her previously pleasant mood evaporated alongside her dreams. Of all the back-stabbing things to do to me…!  
She took a deep breath and stepped forward to offer her congratulations. Even as Valentina shook the hands of the king and queen however, she was making a silent vow. No matter what it takes, I will be queen someday!  
________________________________________  
“Look at you! You keep getting bigger every time I see you,” Garro the sculptor said as he admired little Prince Mallow Nimbus. Even at little more than a year old he already bore a strong resemblance to his father, though he had his mother’s hair. On this day he wore a tiny pair of pants with a belt that Garro had made that bore his name on the buckle.  
King Nimbus couldn’t help but to swell with pride. “Yes, and he learns something new nearly every day. Why, just this morning-”  
“Dear, why don’t we continue the conversation indoors?” Queen Nimbus chuckled as she shifted Mallow in her arms.  
“Absolutely, please step into my studio. Is there anything I can possibly get for you? Tea, perhaps, or maybe some fresh lemonade?”  
Watching from a window Valentina waited until the king and queen had gone inside Garro’s studio before quickly exiting the palace and heading down the beanstalks to Bean Valley. Waiting at the surface was a gang bandits consisting of birdies, blue birds, and even a few shy aways.  
“I take it you have the money?” the head bandit asked as Valentina stepped forward. Valentina nodded.  
“Down to the last Coin,” she said as she produced a money bag, though the bandit didn’t accept it just yet.  
“We only consider this a down payment. Further payments are required for our continued employment.”  
“Which we have already discussed in detail. You will continue to be paid for as long as your services are required.”  
“Excellent. Consider our loyalty yours, Queen Valentina,” the head bandit said as he took and pocketed the money.  
“Let’s get down to business. Tonight after sunset I want you to invade the palace and capture the young prince.”  
“Will it be difficult, Queen Valentina?” a small shy away asked.  
“Not especially. There are very few guards, and none of them are armed. Nor do they have very strong powers. Now, once you have the prince I want you to retreat all the way past the land bridge and wait for my arrival. We’ll proceed from there. Do you have any other questions?” All of the bandits shook their heads. “Very well. I must return now, but I look forward to your ‘visit’ tonight.”  
All present chuckled nastily and Valentina departed back up the beanstalks to Nimbus Land. The rest of the day proceed normally for Valentina; the usual paperwork, a small salad for dinner. Finally as the first stars began to appear she could hear a commotion within the palace.  
Feigning surprise, Valentina came out of her office and looked around. “My stars! What’s happening?”  
“Bandits, Valentina! Get out of here while you still can!” a palace guard shouted as he ran past. Valentina headed in the opposite direction and hadn’t gone more than a few feet before King and Queen Nimbus came around the corner up ahead. And they were carrying a very sleepy Prince Mallow.  
“Valentina, there are bandits attacking the palace! We must get out of here while we still can,” King Nimbus said urgently.  
“Let’s not waste time then, your majesties,” Valentina replied. The king and queen hesitated for a moment before holding out Prince Mallow.  
“Please, take Mallow with you Valentina. Take the right corridors, we’ll take the left ones and meet back up outside,” Queen Nimbus forced back tears as she spoke.  
“I promise to take good care of him,” Valentina lied as she took the little prince. Prince Mallow squeaked and reached out for his parents.  
“Mommy! Daddy!”  
“Shhhh, it’ll be alright. Be good for auntie Valentina.”  
“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be just fine,” Valentina said as she turned and set off deeper into the palace. After a few minutes searching she came across a small group of bandits and joined them down the corridor.  
“Mission accomplished,” she said as she triumphantly held up the prince. “The king and queen just gave him to me, it was brilliant.”  
“That’s great! Will you be accompanying us out, then?” a blue bird asked as they put Mallow into a basket they brought along with them.  
“No, that’d be too suspicious. It needs to be realistic so you’d better knock me out. I’ll come down later.”  
“Are you sure?” one of the birdies asked, visibly nervous. Valentina nodded.  
“Yes, now hurry up before someone sees us!”  
Gulping, the birdie swung his spear into the back of Valentina’s head. Valentina instantly crumpled and fell to the ground. Without looking back the bandits opened a window and flew back down to the surface with their tiny cargo. Beyond the desert, past the bridge, they finally landed at the base of a hill.  
“Queen Valentina was right, that was easy!” the blue bird said as he set down the basket containing the now-sleeping prince.  
“I know, right? That was almost unfair, it’s great!”  
“Imagine the tears they’ll shed when they find out,” a birdie cackled.  
“Imagine the rewards Queen Valentina will give us,” a shy away said. “I want lots and lots of plant seeds to grow!”  
“That’s a dumb reward. I’d rather have money.” The blue bird and another birdie nodded in agreement.  
“Yeah, well, your face is dumb!” the shy away retorted.  
As they argued, none of them noticed Klepto the Condor snatch up the basket and fly off to the east.  
Back in the palace, Valentina was coming to as one of the guards waved smelling salts under her nose, King and Queen Nimbus waiting at her side.  
“Valentina, can you hear me? Are you alright?”  
“Yes, I-I think so,” she replied as the guard helped her sit up. Catching sight of the king and queen, Valentina bowed her head.  
“I’m so sorry. They ambushed us and I tried to get away, but they were too strong, and took the prince away from me.”  
Queen Nimbus gasped and covered her mouth, instantly tearing up. King Nimbus quickly stood up, pale and trembling.  
“I want everyone down in Bean Valley at once. Search the desert, too. They must not get away with this!”  
“Right away, your majesty,” the guard bowed and hurried off. Valentina got to her feet.  
“Sire, I want to join the search. I feel like it’s my fault this happened.” Which it is, of course.  
“Don’t blame yourself Valentina. It could have happened to anyone. You are of course welcome to accompany them.”  
“Thank you so much, your majesty. I will do whatever I can to help.” Valentina bowed and set off. As soon as they had gone Queen Nimbus finally broke down crying. Outside it instantly began to rain.  
“Oh Cumulus! What if they hurt Mallow? What if-” She sobbed harder, unable to continue. King Nimbus pulled her into his arms and too began to cry. The rain fell even harder as the couple wished with all their might for Mallow’s safe return.  
________________________________________  
“He WHAT?!” Valentina roared as thunder cracked over Land’s End. “How could you idiots possibly lose a baby?!”  
“We don’t know what happened Queen Valentina,” one of the birdies whimpered. “We were just waiting for everyone else and suddenly the basket was gone.”  
“Shuddap! What kind of crap bandits are you, letting another bandit steal from you?!” Valentina glared at the group and even the leader wilted under her gaze. “I don’t care if another monster or bandit kills him first, but if anybody from Nimbus Land finds him alive, it’s over. We won’t get another opportunity. Bring him back here and step on it!”  
“Y-yes ma’am!” the head bandit saluted as the rest of the group quickly scattered before flying off into the night himself.  
The short night seemed to stretch on forever as both groups searched frantically for the missing prince. But when the grey dawn broke nobody could find even a trace of the whereabouts of Prince Mallow.  
Klepto the Condor meanwhile had flown east through the rainy night with the stolen basket containing the missing prince. By the time the sun rose they were over central Mushroom Kingdom, many miles away from the Land’s End region.  
“Man, rain is just the absolute worst. I hate patrolling the skies in the rain!” one of the Koopa Troop’s loyal lakitus complained to his patrol mate.  
“You said the same thing yesterday about the sunny weather. All you did was whine about how you wanted some clouds, and now that we have ‘em you want ‘em gone.”  
“I said I wanted clouds, not rain. We can’t see anything in this stupid rain! Those toads could be up to something and we’d never know it thanks to this lousy weath-Oof! Hey! Watch where yer flyin’!”  
Klepto let out a screech upon colliding with the lakitu and dropped the basket. Mallow woke up and immediately began crying as he fell to the surface, prompting even heavier rainfall. Luckily for the young prince the basket landed on a warp pipe and safely popped up the other side. Unluckily the sewer he reappeared in was completely flooded thanks to the nightlong rainfall.  
Mallow’s cries echoed loudly in the tunnels as the basket floated away down the current.  
________________________________________  
“What a miserable day. This rain will never let up anytime soon,” Frogfucius muttered to himself as he chewed on some crickets beneath the tree on his island. Being the only frog in Tadpole Pond could get very lonely, especially on a day like today.  
Having nothing better to do Frogfucius watched the sizable Midas Falls that fed the pond. As he watched something suddenly plummeted down the waterfall and vanished underwater. Moments later it popped back up again and drifted over to his island.  
“Huh, looks like a basket. Some toad must’ve lost it on a picnic,” he said as it drifted closer. Frogfucius didn’t think more of it until it bumped up against his island and realized a baby was inside of it!  
“My stars…!” Frogfucius jumped up and plucked the basket out of the water. He gently lifted up the baby and carried him over to the tree. Pale yellow and round, with a single pink tuft of hair, he had never seen another being like him before.  
“What a relief, you’re still alive,” he whispered when he noticed the unconscious baby was still breathing. “You poor thing. You look so well cared for. What in the world happened?” As Frogfucius cradled the baby he realized something was engraved on the little belt he was wearing. “‘Mallow’. Is that your name, little grasshopper?”  
Eventually the baby stirred and began to whimper. “Shhhh, it’s alright. You’re safe now,” Frogfucius whispered as he rocked the baby. The baby’s eyes slowly opened and blinked a few times.  
“I don’t know who you are, or where you came from, but I’ll take care of you. Welcome to your new home, little Mallow.”  
“Daddy?” the baby, Mallow, squeaked. Frogfucius smiled and shook his head.  
“No, I’m…your grandpa.”  
“Gampa!” Mallow smiled and giggled. At once the rain slowed and ceased, and the gloomy clouds parted into a beautiful summer’s day. “Gampa!” Mallow eagerly repeated a second time.  
Frogfucius was astonished at the sudden change in the weather. “Did you…? No, it must be a coincidence. No one can control the weather, especially not a baby.”


	2. One Summer's Day

“Good morning, Grandpa!”  
“Mallow, up early again? School let out for the summer a week ago,” Frogfucius said as he poured himself a cup of cricket tea and sat down at their table, one of the few pieces of furniture they had at Tadpole Pond. Mallow shrugged while eating a bowl of Sugar Mushroom cereal.  
“Habit I guess. Hey, so, remember when you took me to Booster’s Tower a few years ago? Can we go again? Please?”  
“I think you’re too old for such things. You’ll be eleven in less than two months. Besides, I don’t feel up to a long journey today.”  
“Oh…,” Mallow felt his spirits dampen for a moment, but then he smiled again. “It’s a beautiful day, how about a picnic? We don’t have to go far.”  
“I’m afraid these tired old bones aren’t up to a short one, either. Perhaps another day.”  
“Oh, well, I’ll just read a book or something then,” Mallow said as he tried to hide his disappointment. Tadpole Pond was nice, but Mallow really preferred to visit Rose Town or even the main town of the Mushroom Kingdom, where there were actually things to do. Where the inhabitants had arms and legs, and weren’t confined to the waters of the pond.  
Mallow finished his cereal and leaned back, watching the clouds go by. I know Grandpa is old, but it gets so boring here all the time. I wish I could go and do something, anything. I wish Mom and Dad would come and bring me back home.  
“You know, young grasshopper, I believe today the cricket pie I ordered a few weeks ago should come in today, but I can’t make the journey as often as I used to. How would you like to go in my place?”  
“Really, you mean it?”  
“Of course. I speak to you often about responsibility, so I should give you the opportunity to demonstrate some. Think you can do it?”  
“Yes!” Mallow grinned from ear to ear, happy not only to go out but to be able to prove himself capable to his grandpa. Frogfucius smiled and handed Mallow a single Frog Coin.  
“This will cover the cost of the pie, so be sure not to lose it along the way. Oh, and if you take the shortcut through the sewers, watch out for Belome. And be sure to stay out of trouble.”  
“I will, Grandpa. No need to worry.” Mallow pocketed the coin and hopped into the water, swimming to the shore of the pond. Once on the other side he waved. “Goodbye, Grandpa!” Frogfucius smiled and waved back.  
“Hurry back soon, Mallow!”  
Mallow hummed to himself as he set out. A light breeze through the trees felt good on this warm day. The birds sang overhead, the clouds stayed light and puffy. It felt so perfect that Mallow decided to bypass the lower entrance to the sewers and take the path uphill instead.  
Though it wasn’t an especially difficult path, it was a long one, and by the time Mallow reached the top an hour later he was quite happy to sit and take a break.  
“Phew, I can sorta understand why Grandpa didn’t want to go himself. Still better than the pond, though. Great view, too.” To the right the more populated central Mushroom Kingdom sprawled out before him. Mallow could see a distant town, an old castle, forests, even a railroad stretching to a far-off mountain.  
To the left, Mallow could see locations much more familiar to him; Rose Town, Moleville, and Booster’s Tower to the south, Land’s End and Barrel Volcano on the western edge of the continent. Closer at hand Mallow could see the territory belonging to the evil King Bowser, including his notorious castle.  
“Mario must be brave, to willingly rescue the princess there all the time. I don’t think I could even cross the lava moat. I’m not that desperate to leave the pond!”  
Mallow admired the view for a few more minutes before hopping back up again. “Alright, I’d better get going. I don’t want to keep Grandpa waiting all-huh?”  
Mallow paused and turned back towards Bowser’s Keep again. Mallow thought he saw, almost sensed, that something was wrong. For a moment everything still seemed normal, but then it happened; a massive sword burst out of the clouds, taking aim at the surface below!  
“H-holy-! What is that?!”  
Mallow watched in horror as the sword directly struck Bowser’s Keep with a powerful crash. The ground beneath his feet shook strongly enough that Mallow actually fell over. Then, something else started to fall from the sky.  
They were stars, actual shooting stars. One of them, Mallow saw, looked like it fell somewhere near the town. The others fell to the west, one in the forest, two in the vicinity of Moleville and Booster’s Tower. The others fell farther to the west and Mallow couldn’t see where they landed. The final one crashed into Bowser’s Keep. Other smaller stars began to fall in large clusters behind them as well.  
But even as the stars were falling Mallow could see three other objects flung out and scattered across the land. He couldn’t see them clearly, but Mallow thought they looked like Mario, Princess Toadstool, and Bowser.  
Mallow shivered, in spite of the warm air. “I don’t know what just happened, but it looks like a disaster. I hope Mario can do something about it.”  
Mallow stood up, brushed himself off, and set off down the road again. He concentrated on positive thoughts in order to avoid thinking about the sword that was now a part of the landscape.  
________________________________________  
King and Queen Nimbus stood in front of the grand window that lined one side of the throne room, overlooking the land below. Queen Nimbus smiled.  
“Such a lovely day. I’m sure everybody is enjoying this wonderful weather.”  
“No doubt about that,” King Nimbus sighed and wrapped an arm around his wife. “But, I wish Mallow were here to enjoy it with us.”  
“I know, dear. I wish he were, too,” Queen Nimbus sighed now. “We just have to tell ourselves he’s enjoying it too, where ever he may be.”  
“Absolutely. He’s probably off having a picnic, or perhaps enjoying a nice swi-by the stars!” King Nimbus exclaimed, looking up. “What is that?!” Queen Nimbus looked up too and gasped.  
The great sword descended from far above, through the clouds, and down into Bowser’s Keep. Even as high up as they were the shockwave rocked Nimbus Land slightly.  
Upon impact they could briefly see Mario, Bowser, and Princess Toadstool all ejected from the castle at once. Moments later stars began to descend all over the land. One of them fell directly in Barrel Volcano down below.  
“What in the world-”  
“Your majesties! Your majesties!” Valentina burst into the throne room. “You’ll never believe it. We found Prince Mallow!”  
“Truly? At long last?!” King Nimbus gasped as he and his wife broke into wide smiles.  
“At long last. I told him to wait just outside, come on.”  
The three of them rushed out of the throne room, past the antechamber, and into the room before it. There was no one there, though the door to the side room was slightly ajar.  
“Ah, he must’ve become shy and darted in there. Go ahead, I won’t interrupt.”  
The king and queen stepped into the room…but nobody else was there. The door slammed behind them with an ominous “click”.  
“Oops! I meant that Mallow’s parents are in there,” Valentina laughed and slapped a note on the door as Shy Away flew up beside her.  
“Valentina! What is the meaning of this?” King Nimbus demanded as he pounded on the door.  
“What it means? It means that I’m taking control of Nimbus Land, of course. I’ve planned on being queen for years. That’s why I had to get rid of your brat early on.”  
“You-”  
“Did you really think it was a coincidence he was taken after you gave him to me?”  
“W-what did you do with him?!” Queen Nimbus shouted through the door.  
“Why, I personally killed him of course, and then threw his body into the sea.”  
Valentina turned and walked back to the throne room as sobbing erupted from behind the door with Shy Away following close behind. The beautiful day had gone, replaced by a fierce thunderstorm.  
“Queen Valentina you lied. You know we never found the prince anywhere.”  
“So what? He’s dead for sure anyways. Now, did you round up the entire palace staff?”  
“Yes, Queen Valentina. We threw them in the dungeon just like you said to and have completely taken their place.”  
“And the palace entrance?” Valentina asked as she settled down onto the throne.  
“The new guards are already there.”  
“Fantastic. Now I want you to go down to Bean Valley and do whatever is necessary to prevent anybody from entering Nimbus Land.”  
“Right away, Queen Valentina,” Shy Away saluted and zoomed off.  
“Hmmm, I feel like something is missing. Ah, yes. Dodo!” Valentina called out, but nobody came. “Dodo!” Again, nothing. “DODO!” Finally a massive black bird came into the throne room, a royal gift from the king and queen several years back. “It’s about time! I want you to go and fetch me an ice cold margarita, and step on it!”  
________________________________________  
Made it at last! Mallow thought to himself as he saw the town entrance just up ahead. But before he could take another step a large purple crocodile wearing a top hat popped out of the bushes.  
“Hold it! The name’s Croco, I’m the new guard here, see? I need to make sure no one suspicious enters town,” the crocodile said as he approached Mallow. Mallow gulped and froze in place. He looks scary. I really hope he doesn’t try to beat me up.   
Croco circled around Mallow before walking back, bumping into him along the way. “You pass inspection. I’ll allow ya into town.”  
“Phew, I’m gla-” Mallow stopped when he caught a glint of green in one of Croco’s claws. “You-! That’s my Frog Coin! Give it back, you thief!”  
“Hah, just try and catch me, kid,” Croco laughed and took off running into town, Mallow chasing after him.  
“Stop! Thief! Come back here!” Mallow yelled as he followed the crook around bushes and behind houses. “Come back here!” When Croco hopped down a ledge with ease, however, Mallow tripped on a rock and fell down it instead. By the time he got back to his feet Croco was out of sight.  
“Oh no! I lost that thieving reptile! Now I’ll never get Grandpa’s Coin back.” Mallow’s face crumpled as his eyes began to rapidly tear up. “N-no, I can’t cry. B-big boys don’t cry,” he sniffled. “But what am I g-gonna do? I let Grandpa dooooown!” Mallow burst into tears and the sunny day immediately clouded over as rain began to pour down. Grandpa will never, ever forgive me for this! And that horrible sword came down, and I couldn’t do anything fun today either! And-  
“Hey, kid, are you alright?” Mallow opened his eyes and a mustachioed man in a red cap and shirt stood before him, wet from Mallow’s rain.  
“G-gee, mister, you’re soaking wet. I’m sorry, give me a moment,” Mallow brushed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, concentrating on the sunny weather from earlier. The rain stopped as quickly as it started and the sun was shining as brightly as it was before.  
The man looked astonished, causing Mallow to blush slightly and shrug. “I don’t know how I do it. I’m really sorry about all that rain, but I feel better now after a good cry,” Mallow paused for a moment. “But, I got so carried away I kinda sorta forgot why I was crying in the first place.” I wish I wasn’t such a crybaby.  
The man groaned and facefaulted. Seeing him face down like that reminded Mallow of the incident that had just happened.  
“Now I remember! The mean old croc stopped me right outside of town and took my Frog Coin. I tried to get it back, but he’s just way too fast.”  
While Mallow was talking the man got up and dusted himself off. But before he had a chance to speak to Mallow a nearby toad woman called out to him.  
“Hey, Mario! Let me see that jump you use on that mean old Bowser.”  
“You mean this little hop?” the man asked as he leapt high into the air. The toad woman grinned.  
“Wow! He really doesn’t stand a chance against that.”  
“Oh my gosh! You’re the Mario? I know all about you! You’ve got more jump than a whole box of frogs.”  
Mario smiled. “Thanks kid. So what’s your name?”  
“I’m Mallow, from Tadpole Pond. I’m a frog, but my jump is absolutely shameful.”  
“Huh, you don’t look anything like…. Well, Mallow, a lot of folks here have been burglarized by that croc, too. I thought you chased after him quite well, so what do you say about helping me catch that thief?  
“Really, you mean it? Are you sure you’re not too busy?” Mallow asked, thinking about the sword the struck Bowser’s Keep.  
“I’m never too busy if someone needs my help. So how about it?”  
“You bet! I won’t let you down, I promise!”  
Mario smiled. “First let’s get a few items, and then we’ll chase down that croc.”  
“Good idea,” Mallow agreed as they walked into the local shop. The shopkeeper looked up and smiled when he recognized Mallow.  
“Well, if it isn’t young Mallow. I was wondering when you’d get here,” said the shopkeeper. Mallow shifted slightly.  
“Oh, um, you see-”  
“Don’t worry; it’s all ready to go. Just give me a moment to fetch it.”  
“Listen, the thing is, well, the Coin, um, got stolen,” Mallow blushed slightly, still feeling ashamed at what happened.  
“Oh dear, it looks like we won’t be able to trade now. Such a shame, old Frogfucius will be so disappointed.”  
“It’ll be okay, Mario and I are going to stop the thief together.”  
“Well, if Mario is on the job, you’ll get that Coin back in a jiffy,” the shopkeeper said as he nodded as he turned to Mario. “So, what can I get you?”  
“I’d like three Mushrooms and two Honey Syrups, please.”  
“That’ll be 32 Coins,” said the shopkeeper as he set them out on the counter. Mario handed over the Coins and pocked the items. “Good luck you two.”  
“We’ll be back in no time,” Mallow promised as they headed out of the shop. As they walked towards the edge of town one of the nearby toads stopped them.  
“Mario, I just saw that no good Croco! He zoomed past here a few moments ago.”  
“He’s the one that stole my Frog Coin! Why didn’t you stop him?”  
“Because I left my bazooka at home, kid, sheesh,” the toad rolled his eyes as he spoke. This time Mario and Mallow facefaulted together.  
“Stop! Thief!” someone cried out as they stood up.  
“Ha! You losers’ll never catch me! A snail could outrun you morons!” Croco shouted over his shoulder as he dashed by out of town.  
“That’s hiiim! Hurry, let’s get him!” Mallow exclaimed as they ran after Croco. Within minutes they found him behind a bush rummaging through a large sack.  
“Look,” Mallow pointed at the bag. “I bet he put everything in there. Let’s get him!”  
“Are you seriously tryin’ to tail me?” Croco laughed at them. “Go home to your mommies before you get hurt,” he said as he slung the bag over his shoulder and ran away.  
“Oh no, it looks like the road is full of monsters,” Mallow said as he noticed goombas and spinies all over the place. “They weren’t here when I first came to town….”  
Mario turned to Mallow with a serious look on his face. “Have you ever done any fighting before?” he asked Mallow. Mallow nodded.  
“Yeah, a little.”  
“Great, then you watch my back and I’ll watch yours, okay?”  
“Okay!”  
As they headed down the road a couple of goombas jumped out in front of them and bared their teeth. “No one gets by without our permission!”  
“How’s this for permission?” Mario whipped out a hammer and smacked one of the goombas with it while Mallow punched the other. The one that got hammered was knocked out, while the other ran away in tears.  
Setting off again, they soon found Croco around a bend, going through his bag of stolen goods. As they approached Croco slung it back over his shoulder.  
“You’re a couple of persistent buggers, but I’m a hundred miles ahead of ya!” he said as he took off running again.  
“I don’t care how fast he is, I’m not going to give up,” Mallow said as they dispatched a group of spinies that had charged them.  
“He’s not as fast as he thinks,” said Mario as fought with a new enemy, a k-9. As they cleared the path of monsters they saw Croco up ahead. This time Croco looked panicked when he saw them coming.  
“Dead end, and they just won’t give up. I’ll just have to hide!” Croco said as he dove into some bushes.  
“He can’t hide in there forever. Come on, let’s sneak up on him,” Mario whispered to Mallow.  
Though he ran before they reached the bush, Mario and Mallow successfully tiptoed up behind him around a different bush and tapped him on the shoulder. Croco leapt up and whipped around, a stunned look on his face.  
“Ha! Your eyes are much faster than your feet! At your rate it’ll take ya a hundred years to catch me!” Croco laughed as he dove into another bush.  
“He can’t keep it up forever, Mallow. Let’s try again.”  
Mallow nodded and they repeated the maneuver again to tiptoe up to Croco and tap his shoulder a second time.  
“That was the fasted hundred years of my life!” Mallow said laughing. Mario laughed too, and Croco growled nervously.  
“Yeah, well, at your rate it’ll still take ya another fifty years to catch me!” Croco shouted as he dove into yet another bush.  
“Come on, we’ll get him for sure this time,” Mallow said as they tried again. This time when they tapped Croco on the shoulder his jaw dropped when he saw them.  
“You again?!”  
“Us again, I’d have to say we’re pretty fast for being over a hundred and fifty years old,” Mario said, smirking. Croco snarled and bared his fangs.  
“Yeah, well it’s still gonna take ya-”  
Thunder cracked nearby as Mallow darted to his other side, blocking his escape route. “Give back my Coin right now!” he shouted at Croco.  
“…Alright, you got me fair and square. I’ll give back everything I took,” he told the duo as he took a few steps away, rummaging through his sack. “Ha, suckers!” said Croco as he suddenly chucked a bomb at Mallow and Mario. Luckily they dodged it just in time.  
“You’ll regret that,” Mario said as he whipped out his hammer and charged at Croco. Croco swiftly dodged the hammer and took a swipe at Mario, injuring him slightly.  
While Croco was busy with Mario, Mallow ran up to his other side and successfully punched Croco in the face. Croco was distracted just long enough for Mario to fling some fireballs directly onto Croco’s tail.  
“YEOUCH!” Croco yelped and stamped out the small fire on his tail. “Why you…you’ll pay for that!” Croco leapt at Mario and attacked him again.  
“Mario! I gotta do something. Wait, I know! I just hope this works, I’m still not very good at it…,” Mallow started to concentrate. A small, but very dark cloud quickly formed right over Croco and unleashed several lightning bolts directly onto him.  
“This kid can call down the sky?!” Croco let out another yelp. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea….”  
“You should’ve thought of that before you started stealing,” Mario said as he whacked Croco in the gut with his hammer.  
While Croco tried to catch his breath from the hammer attack Mallow managed to punch him in the face again. “Gimmie back my Coin, or we’ll belt you some more!”  
“I’ll pay back in spades for that, kid!” Croco growled and managed to claw Mallow’s head before dumping the entire contents of his bag at their feet. “Go on, take your dumb coin!” Croco tore off to the west, away from the town.  
“We did it Mario! We got everything back! Woohoo! Yeah!” Mallow jumped for joy. Mario smiled.  
“I couldn’t have done it without you, Mallow. Thank you.”  
“Aw, I didn’t think I did much. Are you hurt bad?” Mallow asked as they gathered up all the stolen goods, including Mallow’s Frog Coin.  
“Just a little, I’ll be alright. How about you?”  
“Oh, we’ll be fine in a moment. This is something I learned recently, hold on,” Mallow concentrated again. This time a small white cloud formed and a gentle rain began. Every single drop of rain made them feel a little better, until they were as good as new.  
“That’s amazing, Mallow. I’ve never met anyone with control over the weather,” Mario said as they started the walk back to town. It was a much more peaceful walk now that all the enemies had gone.  
“I don’t know how I do it. It’s something I’ve done my whole life. But I’ve only gotten a real handle on it within the last year or so.”  
“What about the rest of your family? Do they have these powers too?”  
“I dunno. I only know Grandpa. My parents left me in his care when I was a baby,” Mallow explained.   
“Did he ever tell you why?”  
“He said it was too dangerous where they lived because of Bowser, so they took me to Tadpole Pond where it’s safer. I love Grandpa but, I really hope they come back soon. I miss them a lot.”  
“Ah, I’m sure they will.”  
As they stepped back into town the duo was stopped in their tracks by what they witnessed. Everywhere Mallow looked he could see shy guys hopping around on swords as if they were pogo sticks, chasing the toads.  
“Stay away! Stop! Heeeelp!” the toad who told them about Croco screamed while one of the shy guys hopped after him.  
“Why would I do that? Bouncing is fun, and we can’t stand anyone who doesn’t bounce.”  
“How about you bounce on this?” said Mario as he jumped on its head. The thing quickly fled in tears. Mario then turned his attention to the toad. “What happened? We weren’t even gone an hour!”  
“These bullies came right after you left. This isn’t even all of the ‘shysters’, most of them invaded inside the princess’ castle with their boss. The nerve!”  
“Mallow,” Mario turned to Mallow. “There are an awful lot of these things. I could really use your help to rid Mushroom Kingdom of them. What do you say?”  
“You can count on me, Mario,” Mallow nodded with a sense of determination.  
Heading deeper into town, Mallow took on the shysters on the left side of the road. My thunderbolt seems really effective Mallow thought as he fried an entire group in one shot. As he worked his way to the princess’ castle Mallow heard cries for help coming from one inside a house.  
“I’m coming!” he said as he ran in. Inside an entire family was cornered by a group of shysters. The mother saw Mallow and called out to him.  
“Help us! Please!”  
“I’ll do my best,” Mallow said while he charged up a fresh attack. Carefully releasing it on the shysters and not the family the whole group fled out the door. As the last one bounced out Mario came downstairs with the family’s other son.  
“Thank you for saving us. We can’t thank you or your friend enough,” the father toad said, which caused Mallow to blush slightly.  
“It was no trouble at all,” Mario replied as the mother handed him two Honey Syrups. Mario handed one of them to Mallow on their way out. “Here, drink up. You’ll feel refreshed.”  
Mallow gulped one down and smiled. “You’re right. And it tastes good, too.”  
“It looks like we got all the ones out here. Ready to take on the castle?”  
“You bet,” Mallow said as they headed up the stairs to the castle doors. Just inside the entrance was a shyster chasing Toad around. A well-timed hammer attack from Mario took care of it.  
“Phew, thanks Mario. That was really scary. Everyone else took cover in the princess’ bedroom, but I kinda got left behind.”  
“We’ll get you there safely, don’t worry,” Mario told Toad as he led them up the stairs to the bedroom. At the top of the stairs a pair of shysters blocked access to the room.  
“Not so fast,” one of them said as the group approached.  
“Look as these losers, they can’t even bounce! We ought to bounce on their heads!” the other one laughed and hopped towards Mallow.  
“At least I’m not a bully like you guys,” Mallow said as he gave the shyster a good punch. Ouch, I didn’t know shy guys were so solid. The shyster wobbled and lost balance, falling down the stairs. The other shyster fell after it a few seconds later.  
“Come on, everyone should be inside,” Toad said as he lead them into the bedroom. The other Mushroom Retainers gathered around him.  
“Looks like we’re saved by Mario again. We can’t thank him enough,” said one.  
“It’s a good thing he came when he did.”  
“Wait a sec, I thought the Chancellor was with you,” a third toad said.  
“No, I thought he was with you guys. Oh my gosh, he must still be in the throne room with the big guy!” Toad wailed. “Mario, you gotta save him!”  
“Don’t worry, just leave it to Mallow and me,” Mario told the toads. Mallow nodded vigorously.  
“Good luck, we’re counting on you!” Toad called after them as they headed back down the stairs.  
“Mario, do you really think we can do it?” Mallow asked as he shook a little. “Their leader sounds really big and scary.”  
“You can do it,” Mario patted his shoulder. “Think of him as just another bad guy. The throne room is just through these doors, are you ready?”  
Mallow gulped, took a deep breath, and nodded. Mario slowly pushed open one of the doors and together they crept in quietly. But I sure don’t feel ready! I wanna go home!  
All over the throne room shysters were leaping everywhere, but the creature that was presiding over them wasn’t a shy guy, it wasn’t even anything Mallow had a name for. It was round and red with small horns and mean eyes. And it was on top of the second-largest sword Mallow had even seen.  
“So where do ya suppose everyone went?” one of the shysters asked. “We hardly had a chance to play.”  
“Who cares,” said a second one. “We have a new home!”  
“We can bounce all day long! And nobody’s here to stand in our way,”  
“Yippie! Let’s bounce the days away!”  
All of the shysters started to laugh, until they saw Mario and Mallow step forward.  
“This isn’t your castle. Give it back to the toads and go back to where you came from,” Mario demanded.  
“Look at this, they can’t even bounce, buncha losers,” a fifth one said as it hopped up to one side.  
“Why don’t we bounce on their heads?” the sixth suggested as it hopped to their other side. They leapt at Mallow and Mario at the same moment. They ducked, however, and the two shysters harmlessly collided in midair and fell to the side. While the rest of the shysters started to jump in an agitated fashion, their leader leapt high into the air before landing with a powerful crash.  
“Listen up gang,” their boss spoke at last. “These guys want to put an end to our party. We can’t let that happen now, can we?”  
“No way, Lord Mack!” the shysters all called back. At once they all leapt towards Mario and Mallow.  
“Mallow, you take care of the shysters, I’ll work on Mack!” Mario called out to Mallow as he charged towards Mack with his hammer ready.  
“Right!” Mallow started to concentrate. Just as he unleashed his thunderbolt on the shysters a fresh group came into the throne room.  
“Oh no! Lord Mack is in trouble! We can’t let them beat Mack the Knife!” one of the shysters yelled and they began bouncing towards Mallow.  
“Mack the Knife?!” Mallow exclaimed as he charged up another attack. “How can something that large possibly be a knife?” Even as he zapped the second group with thunderbolt a third group came through the door and headed straight for Mallow.  
“Oh come on!” Mallow unleashed a thunderbolt on the third group and waited, but no more shysters came into the throne room. Mallow turned and ran to Mario. “Mario, do you need any help?”  
“Yeah, this guy is no pushover like Croco,” Mario said as he dodged a fireball.  
“So the shrimp is gonna take me on too, is he?” Mack laughed and started to spit fireballs towards Mallow.  
Mallow ducked and tried to dodge the fireballs, but he tripped and one hit him directly on the head. “Ouch!”  
“Come on Mallow, try to attack him,” Mario called as he jumped on Mack’s head in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to stop spitting fireballs.  
“I can’t, it’s too hard to dodge and concentrate at the same time,” Mallow called back, dodging a fresh wave of fireballs.  
“You have to, everyone is counting on us!”  
Mallow looked up at Mack, remembering the frightened Mushroom Retainers, the terrified townsfolk, and the mocking laugh of the shysters. A fresh wave of determination waved over him and Mallow began to carefully concentrate while avoiding the fireballs. Slowly a dark cloud began to build and then finally unleashed a thunderbolt on Mack, stunning.  
“I think we just about got him. Can you do it one more time?” Mario asked him.  
“I can try.”  
“Do whatever you can manage and I’ll take care of the rest.”  
“Alright,” Mallow said as he started to concentrate again just as Mack started to spit fireballs again. Another fireball struck Mallow in the head but he managed to charge a few seconds longer before unleashing another thunderbolt on Mack. Mario took this time to first smack Mack with his hammer before jumping on his head.  
“N-n-no! HOW COULD I LOSE TO SUCH LOSERS?!” Mack screamed before exploding at last.  
“Yes!” Mallow cheered. “You beat Mack, Mario!”  
“We beat Mack,” Mario corrected him and patted his back. “I told you that you could do it.”  
Mallow smiled, but before he could say anything a large, light blue star suddenly appeared from behind the throne. As he watched it circled around them several times before falling into Mario’s hands.  
“H-hey, our injuries are gone,” Mallow realized. “What kind of star is this?”  
“Oh, this is not good!” something behind them moaned. Mallow turned; it was the two shysters that tried to attack them before the fight had really started.  
“The puffy and mustachioed ones are strong!” the other one whimpered.  
“Come on, we gotta warn the boss!” The two shysters turned and bounced as fast as they could out of the throne room before the duo could lift a finger.  
“The boss? Mack was just somebody’s underling?!” Mallow gasped.  
“That’s what it sounded like.”  
“A-are they gone?” an elderly toad whimpered as he climbed out from under the throne. He looked around and sighed. “Gracious, Mario to the rescue again,” the toad said as he stood up and straightened out his robe. “But, just who were those-”  
“Chancellor!” Toad ran into the room with the rest of the Mushroom Retainers. “I’m so glad you’re alright!”  
“I thought those monsters got you for sure,”  
“Mario was right; he really did get rid of those bad guys!”  
The toads assembled into their usual spot while the Chancellor paced in front of the throne. Once they had finished getting into position he started to speak again.  
“This has been a terrible day. First the princess gets abducted, then Mario can’t rescue her, then those things invaded our fair kingdom. It’s almost too much to bear! I wish I knew what our next move was….”  
I wish I knew, too. If only Grandpa were here, then he’d-wait! “Excuse me, sirs,” Mallow stepped forward and all the toads jumped slightly. Really, they didn’t notice me before? “How about we ask my Grandpa? He knows everything.”  
“Ah, excuse me, but who are you?” the Chancellor asked. Mallow bowed to him.  
“My name is Mallow, sir. I’m from Tadpole Pond. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  
“Mario is this true?” the Chancellor looked to Mario.  
“Sure. Not only did Mallow help me take on Mack and the shysters, he also helped me confront a local thief and recover all the items he’d stolen.”  
“It sounds like you are quite skilled for a young one. Any friend of Mario is always welcome here in Mushroom Kingdom,” the Chancellor smiled and turned back to Mario. “As I was saying, we still need your help Mario. If Bowser’s castle cannot be reached at this time, perhaps it won’t hurt to accompany Mallow to see his grandfather.”  
“Then it’s settled. Come on Mallow; lead the way to Tadpole Pond.”  
“Grandpa can definitely help, I just know it,” Mallow said as they made their way back out of the castle. “Just let me finish my errand and then I’ll be good to go.”


	3. A Shocking Twist

Grandpa is going to be so happy with this cricket pie Mallow thought as he walked out of the item shop, carrying it in a box. I just hope he’ll understand about it took so long.  
“Ready to go?” Mario asked him.  
“Yup,” he said while putting the box in a pocket. “Did you finish returning everything Croco stole?”  
“Every last one. Come on, let’s get going.”  
It was still a beautiful day as they set off down the path towards Tadpole Pond. A light breeze moderated the warm air, making it much more bearable for travel. Just going by the weather it’s hard to believe anything bad has happened today, let alone three times. I really hope nothing else happens.  
“Wait,” Mallow stopped Mario after they’d traveled for a while. “I know a shortcut near here that we can take. It’ll save us a lot of time, come on,”  
Mallow led Mario off the path and pushed his way through some bushes. In the center of this small clearing was one of the Mushroom Kingdom’s famous pipes.  
“This is the entrance to Kero Sewers. It’s dark and a bit smelly, but it’s pretty safe down there. Grandpa always says to watch out for someone named ‘Belome’, though.”  
“Belome is probably just some shady salesman, I wouldn’t worry. We’ll be just fine; places like this are my specialty you know.”  
Mario jumped onto the pipe and disappeared down it. Mallow climbed on top and followed suit. Down below it was much cooler and quieter. Mario was looking around.  
“I dunno, we might have to look out for monsters here, too.”  
“I’ve only ever seen a few, and they were just little rat funks. They ran when they saw me, too.”  
“Even so, we’d better keep our guard up.”  
They started to trek through the dank tunnels alongside the water. Mallow couldn’t hear anything except the gurgle of water and their own footsteps. Mario is just a little paranoid. There isn’t anyone else down here except maybe a couple of rat-  
A boo swooped low over their heads, cackling loudly. It turned around and flew right at them, this time joined by a shadow creature.  
“Oh no, I don’t think physical attacks work on ghosts!” Mallow said as he braced himself for their attack.  
“Then I’ll just use my fire orb on them,” Mario cracked his knuckles and blasted them with the same fireballs he used on Croco. Both ghosts dissolved back into nothingness.  
“Boy, I thought they had us for sure.”  
“You don’t need an invitation to attack, you know,” Mario said as they started down the tunnels again. “Just go for it. The worst that’ll happen is you miss.”  
“But it’s all wet down here. If I use my thunderbolt I might shock both of us.”  
“Mallow, you don’t give yourself enough credit,” Mario laughed and used another fire orb on another boo that had just appeared. “I saw you use it on the shysters and not that toad family earlier. And you didn’t think you could use it and dodge Mack’s attacks at the same time either, but you did.”  
“But that’s different. The toads weren’t standing in puddles of water.”  
“So? Just use your healing rain and we’ll be as good as new.”  
Around the corner a small pack of rat funks charged at the duo. Mario whacked two of them into the water using his hammer. Mallow managed to punch a third although he got nipped in the process. The rest of the pack turned and fled back down the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.  
“You okay?”  
“Yeah, no big deal. I don’t understand why there are so many monsters, though. This has never been a problem before.”  
“I blame that sword,” Mario’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. “You did see it sticking out of Bowser’s Keep, I assume,”  
“It’s kinda hard to miss. It’s really scary, too. I got a really bad feeling from that sword.”  
“Tell me about it.”  
Out of the darkness a strange object loomed. Cautiously approaching it they found it was a large green floor switch.  
“That’s weird, I’ve never seen this thing before,” Mallow said as he inspected the switch. “I wonder what it’s for.”  
“Only one way to find out,” Mario stepped onto the switch and at once all of the water drained from the tunnels. Down where the water used to run was a very slimy pipe.  
“Wow, I never noticed that pipe down there before. Do you think we should try it out?”  
“Absolutely, let’s go.”  
Mallow and Mario jumped into the empty channel and down the previously-hidden pipe. The other end dropped them into a very long tunnel. Before them, in front of a great metal gate an odd yellow creature slept. It looked like a bipedal dog with red runes.  
“I bet this thing is Belome,” Mallow whispered to Mario.  
“Are you sure?” Mario whispered back.  
“No, but who else could it be?” Mallow stifled a giggle and pointed at Belome’s face. “Wow, is that a fire hose or his tongue?” Mario started to chuckle as well, until Belome’s four eyes shot open. Oh shoot! We woke him up!  
“So hungry…. I need a snack. And you look very tasty,” Belome started to move towards them.  
“Why don’t you eat this?” Mario used fire orb and blasted Belome with several fireballs. Mallow rushed forward and pummeled Belome with several punches, but he didn’t even seem fazed. Rather, he focused on Mallow and started to drool.  
“Oh my, room service is so kind. Giant marshmallow for lunch. Where’s my bib?” Belome started to lick Mallow. Mallow yelled and ran.  
“I’m not anybody’s lunch, you jerk!”  
Mario jumped into the air and whacked Belome on the head using his hammer. Belome turned and slapped Mario with his tongue.  
“Get your own food,” Belome snarled and slapped him again. Mario started to shoot more fireballs, however Belome didn’t seem to even notice them. Mallow ran forward charging and unleashed thunderbolt on him. Belome paused and turned back to Mallow again.  
“Oh, I can’t stand it anymore,” he moaned. “The hunger, the hunger!” Belome’s tongue lashed out and wrapped around Mallow. Mallow screamed as Belome then withdrew his tongue and sucked Mallow into his mouth!  
“NOOOO!” Mallow yelled and thrashed around, but Belome didn’t seem to react. This is it, I’m gonna die! He’s going to eat me and there’s nothing I can do and Grandpa will- Mallow suddenly collided with the ground, free from Belome’s mouth.  
“Mallow, are you alright?” Mario asked as he jumped off of Belome’s head.  
“I think so, but that was really scary!”  
“Even though you defeated me, you still haven’t beaten me,” Belome said. “Beware the flood.” With a large poof Belome vanished. The large gate before them immediately began to rise; all the water they had drained earlier was released and the duo was swept away.  
Mallow struggled but managed to reach the surface. Mario popped up beside him a few seconds later.  
“Mario, we gotta get out of here before we go over Midas Falls!”  
“I think it’s already too late!” Mario pointed at the growing bright light ahead of them. Moments later they went flying out of the tunnel and down Midas Falls. This feels…familiar.  
After what seemed liked minutes of falling Mallow landed in the water with a small splash. He swam away from the turbulent waters of the waterfall and surfaced in calmer waters. As Mallow started to head for the shore Mario swam up beside him.  
“Mallow, remind me to never take one of your shortcuts ever again,” Mario said as he pulled himself onto dry land carrying a green koopa shell. Mallow laughed and climbed ashore too.  
“I thought that was kinda fun, actually. So what’s with the shell?”  
“Something I found in the water. It seems to be full of Coins,” Mario shook the shell and a large handful of coins fell out.  
“Wow, that’s really lucky! Great find, Mario.”  
“Thanks,” Mario smiled and pocketed the Coins. When he finished he studied the shell and kicked it into a tree trunk with a nok. “I can use this ‘noknok’ shell too. It’ll make a good weapon. So, how much farther do we have to go?”  
“Mario, we’re already there,” Mallow laughed. “Come on, its right over here.”  
Mallow led Mario around the edge of the pond to a small clearing at the shore’s edge. Just as they stepped up a tadpole poked its head out of the water.  
“Mallow, you’re back! We’ve heard about all your adventures with Super Mario. You guys just beat up Belome, didn’t you?”  
“You already know about that?” Mallow asked. The tadpole nodded and Mallow turned to Mario. “You see Mario? The waterways of the world bring news to us here. That’s why Grandpa will know how to help you.”  
“Wait, you’re the Super Mario?” the tadpole asked Mario.  
“You bet I am, little guy. Nice to meet you.”  
“Oh my gosh! Hey everybody!” the tadpole called out. “You’ll never believe who’s here!”  
Seven more tadpoles surfaced and started to chatter when they saw Mario.  
“Wow, it really is Mario!”  
“He doesn’t look anything like I thought he would,”  
“Mallow always says about how he jumps better than a froggie. Do you suppose it’s true?”  
“Of course it is,” Mallow said. “Why don’t you show them?”  
“Heh, no problem,” Mario jumped high in the air and landed with a dramatic pose. The tadpoles cheered and even Mallow couldn’t help but to grin.  
“Well young grasshopper, what’s new?” Frogfucius called out from the island.  
“Grandpa!” Mallow waved as the tadpoles dove back underwater. “I met Mario and he helped me, then I helped him!”  
“Yes, child, I know. That rainstorm we had earlier was you, wasn’t it?”  
Mallow bowed his head in shame just as he heard muttering over on the island. Even Grandpa is fed up with my crying all the time.  
“Mario,” Mallow whispered. “Grandpa is going to pretend to float, so act like he really is okay?”  
“Sure,” Mario whispered back just as Frogfucius started to “float” over to them, thanks to a little help from Lakitu.  
“Welcome to Tadpole Pond! You are Mario, yes? I am young Mallow’s grandfather, Frogfucius. So you’ve come to seek my wisdom and knowledge. It is true that many things reach me out here. Come along to our little island sanctuary and we’ll talk there.  
“Tadpoles!” Frogfucius called out as he floated away. “Make yourselves useful and form a bridge for Mario and Mallow so they don’t have to get any wetter.”  
At his words the tadpoles lined up between the shore and the island, allowing Mario as well as Mallow to hop across. Frogfucius was already sitting at the table and beckoned them to join him.  
“Please, feel free to make yourself at home and enjoy a cold drink. You too, Mallow. You have definitely earned this after everything you accomplished today.”  
While they sat down Frogfucius pulled out two cans of Kerokero Cola that had been chilled in the cool pond waters, handing one to Mario and the other to Mallow. Mallow gulped down most of his at once and then kicked back.  
“Hmmm, let’s see, where should I start…? That Smithy creature that just showed up at Bowser’s Keep is quite formidable, yes? And you want to rescue the fair princess from him, do you not?”  
“Of course,” Mario replied. “I won’t allow anybody to hold Princess Toadstool captive.”  
“Ah, but the thing is, the princess is no longer there.”  
“But, how can that be? Bowser kidnapped her just this morning, I saw her there myself.”  
“Allow me to explain,” Frogfucius said. “Just as you defeated Bowser, just as you were about to rescue Princess Toadstool, that massive sword split the sky and slammed into Bower’s Keep!” Frogfucius leapt onto the table as he spoke. “Well, you weren’t the only one sent flying; Princess Toadstool and even Bowser were ejected as well. Both of them landed here, in the western reaches of the Mushroom Kingdom, but at this time I don’t know where they are.”  
Frogfucius jumped off the table and paced around a little. “I can tell you wish to search for the princess right away, but stopping Smithy should be your top priority. Already his underlings are wreaking havoc in our peaceful world. You both already defeated one of them, the vile Mack. Unfortunately, more are certain to come. Some have already arrived.”  
“Grandpa!” Mallow interrupted. “I almost forgot. Right after we beat Mack we found a great big star in the princess’ castle. Do you know what it was, and where it came from?”  
“A star? Most interesting,” Frogfucius stroke his beard for a minute before speaking again. “This may seem like an illogical fairytale, but I am certain that the stars play a vital role in granting our wishes. They will be very important in the fight against Smithy for our world.”  
“Everything sounds so dire and serious, Mario,” Mallow drained the rest of his can before speaking again. “If Mack was just the first of many I bet some of them will make Bowser seem kind and caring.”  
“Mallow, how can you speak as though none of this concerns you?” Frogfucius scolded Mallow. “You will be accompanying Mario on his journey to stop Smithy. Your powerful abilities will be most useful in saving our world.”  
“Grandpa, you can’t be serious! I’m just a simple little frog. This quest isn’t for me. How can a frog possibly help a famous hero like Mario?”  
Frogfucius sighed and looked down, a pained expression on his face. When he spoke again he avoided looking directly at Mallow.  
“Mallow, my boy, I’ve kept this from you until now, but you’re…not a frog of any sort!”  
“Say what?!” all of the pond’s inhabitants exclaimed, though none as loud as Mallow. If he hadn’t been already sitting he’d have surely fallen over. N-no! How can this possibly be?!  
“It was a rainy summer day nearly ten years ago,” Frogfucius began. “I was eating a cricket snack when a basket came down Midas Falls. I was shocked to find a baby inside and pulled him out of the water. I was relieved to see the baby was alive, though I had never seen anything like him before. Nor could I understand why he had been sent down the river as he had otherwise been clearly well cared for.  
“Not knowing what else to do I decided to raise him as my own grandchild and called him ‘Mallow’, for that was the name that was engraved on his belt. Every year we celebrate that day as your birthday. I told you that you were a frog so you would fit in here, despite your unusual power over the weather.”  
“I-I-I was a-adopted? N-now I know why you h-hate me and w-want me g-gone…. M-my whole life here is a lie!” Mallow’s face crumpled as his eye’s welled up; overhead clouds rapidly gathered and grew dark. But before he could fully break down crying Frogfucius stamped the ground, snatching back Mallow’s attention and shooing away the rest of the pond’s inhabitants.  
“Mallow!” he said angrily. “Now is not the time to cry. I most certainly don’t hate you. Why, I couldn’t love you any more if you really were my grandson. I’m telling you all of this because I want you to find your mother and father. They’re out there, somewhere, but you’ll never find them if you stay here at Tadpole Pond. Nor will you be happy here forever. Surely you must have noticed your struggle to fit in as of late. That is why I want you to accompany Mario.”  
Mallow wiped his eyes and sniffed. “O-okay. I’ll do my best to stop being a crybaby and I’ll go with Mario, if he’ll have me.”  
“Of course I will,” Mario smiled. “You were very good at fighting Croco, and Mack and the shysters. I think we make a great team. Smithy won’t stand a chance against the two of us.”  
“Then it’s settled,” Frogfucius said. “Your first stop is Rose Town. The townsfolk are in trouble thanks to Smithy’s underlings. You must help them.”  
Mallow nodded and stood up. “Before I forget, I brought back the cricket pie you wanted Grandpa. I’m sure it’s still alright even after that encounter with Belome,” Mallow pulled out the box containing the cricket pie and set it on the table.  
“Ah, I had forgotten all about why you had gone out in the first place, Mallow,” Frogfucius rummaged through his dresser until he pulled out a hand carved staff. “This is my old froggie stick. I made and used this when I was your age. Please take it with you,” Frogfucius handed Mallow the staff.  
“Thanks Grandpa. I promise I won’t let you down.”  
“I know you won’t. Farewell Mallow, Mario. May the stars be with you!”  
“Goodbye Frogfucius, thanks for all your advice,” Mario shook the old frog’s hand before jumping back across the tadpole bridge. Mallow quickly hugged Frogfucius and followed Mario, successfully blinking back tears.  
“Bye Grandpa! Take care!”  
“So how are you doing?” Mario asked as they set off down Rose Way.  
“Um, okay, I guess.” How do you think I’m doing?! “But, well, even though what Grandpa said was true about fitting in lately, this is all I’ve known my whole life. But now I feel lost. I don’t know who I am or where I come from anymore.” Mallow looked down; it was hard to keep from crying.  
“You’re still a good fighter and the same kind boy that I left the castle with. And don’t worry too much about finding your family. I’ll help you find them no matter, what, okay?” Mallow nodded and managed to smile, feeling a little better. Up above the clouds began to break up, the sunny day returning once more. “So, how far is it to Rose Town?”  
“It’s not far; we’ll be there in no time.”  
Out of the bushes up ahead a trio of shy guys popped out and started firing their slingshots at them. Ignoring the pebbles bopping him on the head Mallow whacked one using the froggie stick while Mario jumped on one and kicked the noknok shell into the other. With both of his companions unconscious the third one fled back into the bushes.  
“That’s interesting; this one feels a lot softer than the shyster did.”  
“Those weren’t shy guys, not real shy guys anyways. They were made out of metal, just like Mack was,” said Mario.  
“Metal?” Mallow said as he took out a group of star slaps with thunderbolt. “That’s pretty creepy. I wonder who made them.”  
“Smithy’s contractor, I guess. If he can make as many minions as he wants I can understand why Frogfucius wants taking out Smithy our top priority. They could easily conquer the entire Mushroom World through sheer numbers if we don’t do something right away.”  
“That won’t happen. I mean, you’re super!”  
Mario smiled, but quickly pulled Mallow back from a bend in the path up ahead.  
“What-”  
“Shh!” Mario whispered and Mallow realized a gruff sounding person was speaking up ahead.  
“Attention, koopa warriors, magikoopa sorcerers, and last but certainly not least, groundling goombas! The Koopa Troop is invincible, we will be victorious. They might have taken down the bridge, but I don’t care that we have to go the long way; we’ll find a way back into my keep no matter what! Move out, on the double! And I mean step on it!”  
Mallow heard marching fade into the distance and turned back to Mario. “Was that-”  
“Bowser, yeah. So Smithy really did kick him out of his keep. If they’re not working together that’s good for us. Smithy and all these monsters running about are bad enough.”  
Mallow led Mario past the clearing and into Rose Town, but something was wrong: everybody was just standing still. And arrows were falling around town.  
“Excuse me sir,” Mallow walked up to the nearest toad. “Is everything okay? What’s going on?”  
“It’s these arrows that have been coming out of the forest all afternoon. When you get hit you freeze up and can’t move a muscle,” the toad man sadly explained to the duo.  
“It happened shortly after that star fell into the forest,” another toad piped up. “Please help me. I have to go chop wood in the forest.”  
“Yeah, I wanted to play outside. Standing here is sooo boring!” a toad child added.  
“This must be what Grandpa meant when he said Rose Town is in trouble. We’re going to help them, right?” Mallow quietly asked Mario.  
“Absolutely; we’ll head out into the forest first thing in the morning.”  
“Huh? Why can’t we help them right now?”  
“Because that looks like a pretty big forest, and there’s only a few good hours of sunlight left. It’s going to get dark in the forest real quick and believe me; we don’t want to be wandering around in there after dark. Not to mention there’s been a pretty big storm brewing in the west since that sword fell,” Mario nodded at the thunderhead towering over what Mallow guessed to be the Land’s End area. “If that comes this way we definitely don’t want to be outside when it hits.”  
“I guess that makes sense. I just hope everyone will be okay until morning,” Mallow said as Mario led them to the inn. As they walked inside Mallow saw a younger toad boy playing with Mario, Bowser, and Princess Toadstool toys while his mom tended to the pot on the stove nearby.  
“Oh no, Mario, save me!” the boy said as he held Toadstool in one hand. “Bwa ha ha! I have the princess, Mario, and you can’t stop me!” he said as he held Bowser in his other hand. The boy set Toadstool down and grabbed the Mario toy.  
“Don’t worry princess, I’ll save you! Super Duper Mega Jump!” The boy simulated Mario jumping on Bowser’s head. Then he hit the Mario toy with Bowser and threw it across the room afterwards. “Bwa ha ha, you can’t hurt me with your lame moves. Toadstool is mine and nobody can do anything!” the toad boy picked up Toadstool again.  
“Oh no! Somebody please save me! Help, hel-” the toad boy turned and finally noticed Mario and Mallow watching him play. “Oh my gosh! It’s Ma-Ma-Ma…mooooom! We have a VIP guest!”  
“Yes, I hear you, dear,” his mother said as she walked to the front of the inn. “Oh my, aren’t you Mario?”  
“The one and only,” Mario smiled. “And this is my friend Mallow,” Mallow smiled and waved as Mario introduced him. “We’d like to stay here tonight if that’s possible.”  
“You have to prove it first,” the toad boy piped up again. “You gotta do one of your jumps.”  
“What, you mean this little hop?” Mario said as he leaped high into the air.  
“All right! Come play with me, it’ll be fun! It’s called ‘Geno saves the world’.”  
“Gaz, Mario and his friend came here to rest, not play. I think its best you let them be,” Gaz’s mother said to him.  
“Awww, c’mon. You’re always too busy to play ‘Geno’ games with me. Playing alone is boring.”  
“It’s okay ma’am, Mallow and I don’t mind playing, do we?”  
“Sure, it’ll be fun,” Mallow agreed.  
“Yes! ‘Mario’ just got a game over so you can be ‘Bowser’, okay?”  
“No problem,” Mario said as he picked up the Bowser toy and imitated his laugh.  
“What about me?” Mallow asked.  
“I forgot about you. Uh, you can be Toadstool; she just says ‘help’ and stuff.” Gaz handed Mallow the Toadstool doll and grinned. “That leaves the best part for me: Geno!” Gaz pulled out a wooden puppet-like toy wearing just a blue hat and matching cape. “Stop right there, Bowser. I’m here to save the princess!”  
“Not a chance,” Mario said as ‘Bowser’ and tapped the Geno doll. Gaz hit the Bowser toy with the Geno one several times, and Mario tapped Geno again.  
“You can’t stop me, I’m going to use my super-duper customized, patented, one and only Shooting Star Shot!” Gaz fired one of Geno’s arms, but instead of hitting the Bowser toy it whacked Mario between the eyes. Mario’s eyes rolled into his head and he crumped onto the floor.  
“Oops…I missed,” Gaz nervously said.  
“Oh no, Mario!” Mallow yelled, horrified. Gaz’s mom rushed over and gently examined Mario.  
“He’s knocked out, but I think he’ll be okay. Mallow, was it? Please help me carry him upstairs and into bed.”  
Mallow nodded and grabbed Mario’s feet while Gaz’s mom held him up by the armpits. Together they carefully hauled him upstairs and into one of the beds. Gaz’s mom returned downstairs once they’d finished, but Mallow sat and quietly waited on one of the other beds for Mario to wake up.  
________________________________________  
“Mario, you’re okay!” Mallow happily said through a mouthful of Sugar Mushroom cereal the next morning as Mario came down the stairs.  
“Aside from the bump on the head, yeah. So, are you ready to head out into the forest?” Mario asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Mallow nodded and ate faster.  
“Yeah, almost done. Too bad you missed dinner last night though, we had cream of mushroom soup.”  
“Aw! I’ll have to make myself a big pot once we take care of Smithy. But maybe I’ll make mushroom pasta first. Best way to celebrate a hard earned victory, after cake of course.”  
“Good morning, Mario,” Gaz’s mother said as she came over. “I hope you slept well.”  
“Given the circumstances, yeah. Now, how much do I owe you for one night?”  
“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly accept any Coins after what happened with Gaz-”  
“Mooom!” Gaz yelled as he came rushing down the stairs. “I just saw the most amazing thing: Geno walking into the forest! Isn’t that awesome?!”  
“Yes, dear,” Gaz’s mom was clearly annoyed as she collected the dirty breakfast dishes. “And isn’t ‘Geno’ the one who broke my lamp the other day?”  
“That was just, well, you know. But this is real, honest!”  
Gaz’s mother took him aside to give him the second scolding in as many days. Mario and Mallow turned to each other, shrugged, and headed outside. Still looks stormy in the west, Mallow noted. But the skies are clear here, thankfully.  
“So what do you think he saw?” Mallow asked as they carefully made their way across Rose Town. Mario shrugged.  
“Who knows, you know how some kids are. They don’t know how to turn off their imagination. He probably just wishes Geno was heading into the forest to stop these arrows instead of us.”  
“I don’t know if he knows about that, though,” Mallow said as they started following the path into forest. “This is so cool though. I’ve always wanted to come in here.”  
“Your grandpa never let you, I take it?” Mario asked.  
“It’s not just that, all kids are forbidden from entering the Forest Maze,” Mallow explained. “The grown-ups say it’s really dangerous in here, full of wigglers and gorillas-”  
“Gorillas?” Mario shook his head. “I think you need to turn off your imagination, too, Mallow. I need you to focus on the real monsters, not imaginary ones-”  
From the bushes ahead a guerilla leapt out and charged at the duo. Mallow quickly zapped it with a thunderbolt while Mario followed it up with some fireballs. The guerilla screeched and ran back into the bushes.  
“…Okay then. Let’s be prepared for anything from here on out,” Mario said as the continued down the path.  
Several ordinary mushrooms suddenly sprang to life as they came near. Mallow whacked a few with his froggie stick while Mario kicked the noknok shell into the others, knocking them all out. Up ahead the path seemed to end, but then a pair of wigglers came out of the bushes and headed straight for Mario and Mallow.  
This time Mario started bouncing on one of the wigglers while Mallow tried to smack the other one with the froggie stick. Unfortunately that didn’t stop the wiggler and it crashed into Mallow, hurting a little.  
“Ouch! Have some of this instead!” Mallow said as he used thunderbolt on the wiggler. This time it ran away in tears.  
The one Mario started bouncing on, however, became very enraged and managed to buck Mario right off. However instead of coming back to attack again it ran back the way it came, smashing through the bushes and revealing the path continued on from there.  
“Are you okay? Should I use my healing rain?” Mallow asked. Mario shook his head.  
“No, better save it for later. Looks like nobody usually comes this deep into the forest, though,” Mario noted as the path became more difficult to follow. As they continued walking another cluster of ordinary mushrooms revealed themselves to be a group of amanita.  
Mallow batted them away with his froggie stick while Mario flung fireballs at them until all had been defeated. The duo continued on but there was no sign of whoever was shooting arrows into Rose Town.  
“C’mon, let’s take a short rest,” Mario said after they had been walking for a while. Sitting down next to a tree Mario handed Mallow a couple of mushrooms and a honey syrup to wash them down with.  
“This arrow-shooting jerk is hard to find. Do you think we’ll have to leave the path to find him?” Mallow asked as he munched on the mushrooms.  
“I don’t know. I’d really prefer not to because we could get lost in here that way,” Mario said between sips of honey syrup. “But if we don’t see any sign of him soon we might not have any choice, though.”  
Mallow nodded and drank his own honey syrup. As he was finishing however Mallow saw what appeared to be a strange man in a blue hat and cape up ahead. “Mario, look!” he said as he jumped to his feet. Mario looked up and got up as well.  
“Hey, you there!” Mario called over to him, but the strange man didn’t stop. Instead he quickened his pace down the path instead. “Wait, stop!” Mario called out as he ran after him, Mallow struggling to keep up. But the mysterious man was fast as he moved through the forest and eventually they lost sight of him.  
“Aw, he’s gone, whoever he was,” Mallow sighed. “What do we do now?”  
“Listen,” Mario said. “Do you hear something?” Mallow strained his ears and thought maybe he heard someone laughing.  
“Is that the wind, or…?”  
“Let’s keep going, but next to the path. And keep as quiet as you can.”  
They set off again, slowly and quietly. Mallow heard the laughing grow louder: it sounded like an entire group was nearby. When they grew close they stopped and quietly, carefully, peered through the bushes.  
The path had led them to a large clearing somewhere near the center of the forest, and hopping around the clearing were dozens of living arrows and one large, crazed-looking bow.  
“Nine hundred ninety-seven! Nine hundred ninety-eight! Nine hundred ninety-nine! One thousand aeros! Nya ha ha ha! For cover they run, tears they cry, fun this is!”  
“Woo-hoo! They’re standing just like statues!” the aero flunkies laughed and hopped with their boss. “Bowyer is the best, better than all the rest!”  
“Nya! More practice I need,” Bowyer declared. “Another thousand I will shoot!”  
“Oh no, he’s not stopping! What are we going to do?” Mallow urgently whispered to Mario.  
“The only thing we can do, give ‘em the old one-two!” Mario whispered back as he cracked his knuckles. But before he could move forward Mallow yanked him back.  
“Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee? There are way too many bad guys there. We need a plan.”  
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. If only we had more help-whoa!” Mario and Mallow heard someone noisily coming down the path and Mario yanked Mallow deeper in the bushes. Moments later an aero arrived in the clearing, shoving a large green star ahead as he did so. That looks like the star we found after beating Mack, except this one’s green.  
“Look what I found, Bowyer!” the aero announced to his boss. “Neat, huh? What do you suppose it’s for?”  
“Target practice,” Bowyer declared. “Watch and see, a bullseye will it be!” Bowyer said as he grabbed one of the aeros and prepared to fire it at the star. But before he could someone charged out of a different bush and put himself between Bowyer and the star. It’s the man in blue!  
“Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing. Return that star to me,” the mysterious man in blue told Bowyer.  
“Nya? A stranger you are…and strange looking at that. Who might you be?”  
“I serve a…higher authority,” the man in blue answered. “That Star Piece belongs to us, to the citizens of this world. You can’t keep it.”  
“Nya! Teach you I will, in charge I am!” Bowyer growled and starting shooting aeros wildly all over the place.  
“Hey, chill out!” the strange man said, but Bowyer just ignored him.  
“What should we do?” Mallow asked Mario from the safety of the bushes.  
“What else? I’m going to help that man, and save Rose Town. If he’s an enemy of Smithy than he has to be a friend of ours,” Mario said as he readied himself for battle.  
“Me too! I’ll do whatever I can to help. …From over here!” Mallow said. Mario facefaulted at his words but quickly got up again.  
“Mallow! Now is the time to have courage!” Mario said as an aero landed near them and took off running towards Bowyer. Mallow started running behind him, froggie stick ready.  
“I am not afraid! And I’m not going to cry!” Mallow declared as he followed after him. Mallow tripped and fell but Mario didn’t notice and kept on going. “Ack, hey, Mario, wait for me, yikes!” A large amount of aeros came flying at Mallow. Fortunately they fell short and pierced the front of his froggie stick instead. Mallow nervously gulped.  
“That could’ve been me! Mariooo, wait up!” Mallow yelled as he took off running again, dodging aeros as he went. He reached Bowyer several seconds after Mario did. “Mario! You just ditched me back there! Look at what he almost did to me!” Mallow said as he pulled the aeros out of his staff and flung them to the ground.  
“So, you’re the Mario!” the strange man interrupted them. “We know all about you!” Huh? This guy, he looks just like Gaz’s doll, except life size and real!  
“But, who are you-”  
“Knock-knock!” Bowyer yelled. “Nya! Ignored I am, insulted I be, finish you will I”  
“You’re the one who’s finished,” Mario said as he kicked his noknok shell into Bowyer. Mallow smacked Bowyer with his froggie stick, but Bowyer didn’t seem to be very affected by either attack.  
“Nya! Three against one! Nyat fair!” Bowyer grabbed three aeros and took aim. “Fix it I will! Shoot aeros I shall! Attack you can’t!” he said as he fired the aeros at the group. The aero stuck his froggie stick and it fell to ground as stone. Mallow looked over and saw the same thing had happened to Mario’s noknok shell and, strangely enough, the doll-man’s arms.  
“Oh no, he did something to our weapons,” Mallow said as he tried to pick up his staff, but unsuccessfully.  
“Then we’ll just have to use our special attacks,” Mario said and fired off several fireballs at Bowyer. Mallow charged and unleashed a strong thunderbolt, but Bowyer just laughed at that.  
“Nya ha ha, that too I do, watch!” Bowyer said and unleashed his own electrical attack, zapping all three of them.  
“Is that all you got? Try and imitate this,” Mario said as he leapt forward and start bouncing on Bowyer like he did the wiggler earlier. After ten jumps he leapt back again.  
“I have something I can do, too,” the mysterious man said as he stepped forward and pointed one of his guns at Bowyer. He charged for several seconds before shooting a powerful beam into Bowyer, causing him to stumble back a little.  
“Nya, try and fight like this,” Bowyer growled and fired more aeros at them. This time when Mallow was struck he felt oddly drained of the energy powering his abilities, but at the same moment his froggie stick turned back to normal.  
“So you can drain our special abilities too,” the mysterious man said. “But you can’t stop us from attacking completely,” he said as reattached his arms before firing one into Bowyer. Just like when we played with Gaz yesterday! Mallow thought as he started smacking Bowyer with his froggie stick. Mario kicked his noknok shell into Bowyer’s head.  
“Nyat! Fair!” Bowyer screamed and used another electrical attack as he fired more aeros, turning their weapons back to stone again.  
“I think we almost got him,” Mario said. “If I use my fireballs, and you use your beam, we might finish him off.”  
“I’ll do what I can, too,” Mallow piped up. When the strange doll-man fired his beam Mario shot some fireballs at Bowyer as well while Mallow unleashed thunderbolt on him.  
“N-no! Defeated I cannot be! Waaaah!” And Bowyer exploded just as Mack had before him.  
“Yes! We did it!” Mallow exclaimed as he held up the peace sign with Mario. The mysterious stranger smiled at them.  
“Thanks for the help; you got me out of a real jam there. I know that my appearance must be startling, but I’m a visitor from above and this is a form I need to borrow for a while.”  
“Do mean, like, from the sky or something?” Mallow asked. The mysterious stranger laughed and shook his head.  
“Much, much higher than that, I’m afraid. Tell me, have either of you heard about Star Road, or Star Haven?”  
“I can’t say that I have, no,” Mario answered.  
“I’ve never heard of them either,” Mallow added.  
“Completely in the dark, eh? It’s a big mess up there and it concerns not just you two, but all the inhabitants of the Mushroom World. Let me explain. You’ve heard of wishing on a star, yes?”  
“Of course.”  
“I do it all the time.”  
“Well, high above your world is my home, Star Haven. Star Haven is where the stars live, and we work to grant the wishes of those down below. When our leaders, the seven honorable Star Spirits choose to grant a wish, they do using a powerful artifact called the Star Rod.  
“Now the Star Rod is actually a small but extremely concentrated, and portably, piece of the Star Road. It’s powered directly by the Star Road, which plays its own part by sending out the magical part of a wish in the form of a shooting star whenever a wish is granted.  
“But yesterday all of this came to a halt when a massive sword destroyed the Star Road and robbed the Star Rod of its power. Not only that, but magical abilities of my leaders has vanished as well, leaving them unable to do anything about this situation. Right now, this is a world where wishes can’t come true anymore.”  
“Whoa, are you saying this star is one of the pieces of Starway?” Mallow asked as he pointed at the green star the aero found in the forest.  
“That’s Star ‘Road’, my young friend. Yes, that star is a broken piece of Star Road.”  
“Mario! That star we found in the castle yesterday-”  
“It must be a piece of the Star Road, too!”  
“So you’ve found another Star Piece, then? There are seven altogether. Although I am not a Star Spirit, and normally am not an especially powerful star, borrowing the form of this doll will allow me to find the Star Pieces, repair the Star Road, and stop that vile Smithy from taking over this world.  
“My name is-” the star went on to say something Mallow couldn’t even begin to pronounce correctly. “But I can see that’s hard for non-stars to pronounce so you can just call me ‘Geno’, after the doll. Now, how about we grab that Star Piece and head out of the Forest Maze?”  
“Yeah, you bet,” Mario nodded and approached the Star Piece. Just like the one in the princess’ castle, as it circled around them Mallow felt his injuries from the fight heal as Mario grabbed the second Star Piece.  
“Oh man, who would’ve thought that star was so important?” a fourth voice spoke up. The trio looked around and found a single aero that Bowyer never fired. “I’ve got to inform Smithy right away,” it said as it hopped away.  
“Oh no! We can’t let Smithy find out about this, we have to stop him!” Mario said as he took off after the lone aero, Mallow and Geno following right behind him.


	4. Moleville Blue

“I can’t believe we lost him,” Mallow unhappily said as they exited the Forest Maze. “He had no arms or legs and he still gave us the slip.”  
“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Geno said. “Smithy was bound to discover the importance of the Star Pieces eventually.”  
“Besides, it’s going to take him a while to get back to Bowser’s Keep anyways, and we already have two Star Pieces,” Mario added. “With a little luck we’ll be hot on the trail of Star Piece number three by the time he even reports back to Smithy.”  
“Yeah, maybe. Hey look, everybody’s back to normal,” Mallow said as they arrived back in Rose Town. Before them toad children played, adults worked outside, and even a few looked like they were preparing to go pick mushrooms in the forest. Mallow smiled. “I’m really glad the effects of Bowyer’s aeros wasn’t permanent.”  
“Me too,” Geno said. “But before we hit the road we’d better stop by the inn first. Given the circumstances I think I owe Gaz an explanation.”  
“Gaz is a little younger than me, though. I dunno if he’ll understand.”  
“It’s worth a try, right?” Mario said as he walked into the inn, Geno and Mallow right behind him. Gaz saw Geno walk in and leapt to his feet.  
“Geno! You’re back! Mom, this is the Geno I was talking about!”  
“Yes dear, I hear you,” Gaz’s mother said as she poked her head out of the kitchen. “My, that’s a fabulous costume! It must be a bit hot for the toad wearing it on a day like this, though.”  
“Aw, forget it, Mom. C’mon Geno, let’s play!”  
“I wish I could,” Geno said. “But I have to leave with Mario and Mallow to search for the rest of the Star Pieces.”  
“Star Pieces, like bits of shooting stars? How come?”  
“How can I make this easy? It used to be shooting stars made wishes come true, and everybody was happy. But now there aren’t any more shooting stars, and everybody will be sad if we don’t do something,” Geno explained. Mario and Mallow acted out Geno’s explanation to help Gaz understand better.  
“I don’t get it,” Gaz said.  
“Well, then let’s just say if things stay this way, your wishes will never come true.”  
“What?! You mean when I grow up I won’t be amazing and strong like you?!”  
“Not until the Star Pieces are all found and the Star Road is repaired. That’s why the three of us are going to go look for them,” said Geno.  
“Geno, I have lots of dreams, you gotta do whatever you can to make ‘em come true.”  
“That’s a promise!” Geno said and smiled. Gaz smiled back before running off.  
“Wait a minute!” Gaz called as he left the room. A few minutes later he returned with what looked like a handful of Geno’s fingers. “Tada, it’s your finger shot! Mom doesn’t like it around the house ‘cause she thinks something will break if you use it, but it’s better than your hand cannon.”  
“Thank you, Gaz. I’ll be sure to put it to good use,” Geno said as he switched out the fingers on his right hand for the finger shot. As soon as he finished the trio left the inn.  
“Well, we got that taken care of. But what next? I have no idea where the rest of the Star Pieces could be,” Mario said.  
“I’m not real sure, but one looked like it landed somewhere near Moleville, or maybe south of there. There’s another one west of Moleville I think, but I couldn’t see where the other two went, maybe somewhere near or around Land’s End,” Mallow said thoughtfully. Mario and Geno stared at him.  
“You saw the Star Pieces fall?”  
“Yeah! When that sword smashed into Bowser’s Keep I saw seven big stars fall. One near the princess’ castle, one in the Forest Maze, two near Moleville, two around Land’s End, and the last one landed in Bowser’s Keep. And then a whole bunch of tiny shooting stars started falling in big clusters, but the other ones are them, right?”  
“Oh no, Bowser’s Keep? Then one of them is already in Smithy’s possession, and there’s no way to get there with the bridge out,” Mario groaned.  
“Let’s not worry about that one just yet. For now we’ll concentrate on the nearest one and head for Moleville, then go from there,” Geno said as they set on down the road to Moleville. Unlike Bandit’s Way and Rose Way, there were no monsters around.  
“So Mallow, how come you’re traveling with Mario?” Geno asked as they walked.  
“Well, first Mario helped me get back my Frog Coin so I could run an errand for my Grandpa, and then I helped him rid the Mushroom Kingdom town of Smithy’s minions. That’s when we found the first Star Piece. After that I took him home to see Grandpa for advice and he told us about Smithy.  
“But, well, after that he told me I was adopted and should join Mario on his journey to stop Smithy and find my real family, wherever they are. So that’s why we’re traveling together.”  
“I’m glad that you are, you have powerful magical abilities. And I’m just sure you’ll find your family someday. If not soon, then we’ll definitely arrange it in Star Haven once we repair the Star Road,” Geno said.  
Up ahead there was a pipe off the side of the path. Mallow walked over to it.  
“Hey, it’s the Pipe Vault. Why don’t we check out Yo’ster Island first?” Mallow said. “It’s south of Moleville so maybe the Star Piece landed there. And it’s the only way to get there,” he quickly added.  
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt. Let’s go,” Mario said as he hopped down the pipe, followed by Mallow and then Geno. Inside the path was narrow and there were more pipes all over the place. “Huh, how do we know which one it is?”  
“Grandpa says it’s the last one at the end. First pipe, last pipe, easy to remember, right?”  
“Yeah, that’s not bad at all. Pipe Land was a lot worse than this,” Mario said as they started forward.  
As they approached piranha plants started poking their heads out of the pipes and snapped at the trio. Mario started kicking his noknok shell into them while Mallow smacked them with the froggie stick before they could get too close. Geno used his new finger shot to shoot the piranha plants from afar. Slowly they made their way to the end of the tunnel to the very last pipe.  
“See you guys on the other side,” Mario said as he hopped down the pipe. Geno went next and Mallow last. Back on the surface they found themselves among a lush, tropical landscape with many yoshis and some vacationing toads as well.  
“Only way to get here, huh?” Mario said as he noticed the ferry and private boats docked in the harbor. Mallow blushed a little.  
“Yeah, well, we’re here aren’t we? So who should we ask first?”  
“Mario!” one of the green yoshis exclaimed and rushed over to the trio. Mario grinned and shook his hand.  
“Yoshi! It’s great to see you again.”  
“It’s great to see you again. So what brings you and your friends out this way?”  
“I was going to ask you that! I thought you lived on Yoshi’s Island.”  
“I moved here a few months ago to start working for the Mushroom Derby. It pays well and I get to be closer to my friends in the Mushroom Kingdom,” Yoshi explained.  
“Sounds like fun. Anyways, this is Mallow and Geno. We came here looking for Star Pieces, did you see any large stars land around here yesterday?”  
“Nothing at all, sorry,” Yoshi said and frowned. “Actually, we have a problem here and don’t know what to do about it.”  
“Really, what’s wrong?” Mario asked.  
“You see that blue yoshi over by the racetrack?” The four of them looked and saw a blue yoshi wearing spiked bracelets and pointy sunglasses.  
“Sure, what about him?”  
“That’s Boshi. Normally he thinks he’s too cool to participate in the Mushroom Derby, but a few weeks ago he did, and won. According to the rules that makes him the boss of all the other racers, and the first thing he did was make a new rule: all races have to be one-on-one now.  
“But the tourists don’t like one-on-one races: they’re not as fun to bet on or watch. So now people are starting to travel here less. If we don’t do something and beat Boshi the Mushroom Derby will shut down and everybody will be out of a job.”  
“That shouldn’t be too hard, I always said you were the fastest dinosaur around, remember? You and me and Luigi were an unstoppable team then,” said Mario.  
“But I can’t beat Boshi either, no one can,” Yoshi said.  
“You just need a little confidence, that’s all. How about I ride you again, it’ll be just like old times.”  
“Well, I suppose, I mean it’s not against the rules. I guess we have nothing to lose, right?”  
“If anyone can help you, Mario can. And me and Geno can cheer you on, too,” Mallow piped up.  
“It’s the least we can do,” Geno added. “So what do you say?”  
“You guys are way too generous, thank you. Come on Mario, let’s get the race arranged right away,” Yoshi said. Mario hopped onto Yoshi’s back and they sped off for the race trace while Mallow and Geno headed for the stands.  
“Look, shaved ice,” Mallow said, noticing a shaved ice stall at the stands. “I’ve always wanted to try some.”  
“Me too. How about we get some?”  
“Yeah!” Mallow said eagerly as they walked up to the stall.  
“Welcome to Shiver City Shaved Ice, Yo’ster Island location. What can I get for you today?” the shaved ice penguin asked them.  
“I’ll take a coconut shaved ice, please,” Mallow said.  
“The Keel mango shaved ice sounds good, I’ll take that please,” said Geno.  
“That’ll be ten Coins,” the penguin said as he made their treats. Mallow handed him the Coins. Once they had their shaved ice they found some seats in the stands among the tourists. Mallow saw mostly toads, but also other yoshis, lakitus, and few bob-ombs that appeared to be quite wealthy.  
“Mmmm, it’s delicious!” Mallow said as he tried his shaved ice.  
“It absolutely is,” Geno agreed. “I’m glad I finally got to try it.”  
“Me too. Maybe you should open a shaved ice place back in Star Haven once we find all the Star Pieces,” Mallow suggested. Geno laughed.  
“No, no, our work is with wishes, but that would be something, wouldn’t it? Ah, it looks like they’re about to start,” Geno said as Yoshi and Boshi lined up at the starting line with Mario still riding Yoshi. The whistle blew and they took off running.  
“Come on, Yoshi, beat that punk!” Mallow yelled.  
“Go Yoshi, you can do it!” Geno shouted.  
Around the track they went, Boshi in the lead by a nose. As they went around the second curve Yoshi and Boshi were neck and neck, then Yoshi pulled ahead. Down the final straightaway the gap between them widened and Yoshi crossed the finish line more than a body length ahead.  
Mallow and Geno cheered the loudest in the stands alongside the yoshis. As some of the fuss subsided they went down to the track where a small crowd had gathered around the racers.  
“But we don’t need a boss,” Yoshi said as they walked up. “That’s why not only are group races back on again, from now on there won’t be any more race bosses.”  
“Hmmph, if you want to be lame about racing then, go ahead. But don’t expect me to race much,” Boshi grumbled before walking away.  
“You did a great job, Yoshi,” Geno said.  
“Yeah, you were super fast, it was awesome,” Mallow added.  
“Why don’t you come with us?” Mario asked as he hopped off his back. “You’d be a great help in our search for the Star Pieces,”  
“Thanks, but I can’t. Now that group racing is back I’m needed here at the race track for now. But someday we’ll team up again for sure,”  
“Yeah, definitely. We need to get going now, but if you ever need anything just ask,” Mario said.  
“Goodbye Mario, Mallow, Geno. It was nice meeting you. Good luck finding the Star Pieces!” Yoshi said as he waved goodbye. The trio waved before heading back down into the Pipe Vault.  
“So I guess the Star Piece must be somewhere near Moleville, then,” Mallow said as they walked back through the Pipe Vault. “I hope you don’t think we wasted time going to Yo’ster Island.  
“Naw, just seeing Yoshi again was worth it, not to mention the Mushroom Derby is obviously important to the island. I’m glad we got to help them out.”  
“Helping others is always worth it,” Geno said as they exited the pipe and arrived back at the road to Moleville. “Even if Smithy wasn’t involved, even if we didn’t get a Star Piece, it was still worth it. It’s what granting wishes is all about.”  
“I didn’t mean to make it seem helping Yoshi was unimportant. I’m just worried about the rest of the Star Pieces. What if Smithy gets them first?”  
“We already plan on taking him out, right? And we know he has one of them already, too. The way I see it it’s not too different from rescuing Toadstool from Bowser.”  
“But you’re used to fighting Bowser, though,” Mallow pointed out. “You know what to expect from him. We don’t know anything about Smithy.”  
“Yeah, but there was a first time I had to fight Bowser, too. I didn’t know what to expect then, and still won, didn’t I?”  
“Yeah, I guess so, huh?”  
“Just focus on one thing at a time,” Geno said. “And right now that’s just getting to Moleville and finding out where the Star Piece landed.”  
As they talked the land got more rugged and the vegetation grew sparse the closer they got to Moleville Mountain until at last they reached the foothills, and arrived in Moleville. Mallow looked around as they stepped into town. There was not a single mole to be seen among the low built houses.  
“That’s weird, there’s nobody here. Even on a workday there’s still moles working in town. I wonder where everyone went.”  
“I wouldn’t say there’s nobody around, look over there,” Geno said and pointed near the entrance to the coal mines. Bowser was standing there surrounded by a few of his minions. That’s strange, he looks worried, Mallow thought.  
“C’mon, let’s hear what they’re saying,” Mario said as he ducked behind a building close to the mine entrance. Geno and Mallow joined him as well and listened.  
“Bowser, most of the troops have deserted us. What’ll we do?” one minion asked.  
“We’ve only had experience fighting Mario! These new guys are too much for us!” another minion said.  
“Everybody just shut up!” Bowser stamped the ground. “I’m the biggest, baddest boss around and don’t you forget it! But if Mario hears I’ve been kicked out of my own castle, my reputation will be ruined! And if you think only my kids are in trouble for letting Smithy take it over, just you wait for what I have in mind for everybody that doesn’t help me take it back! So let’s go show ‘em who’s the real boss of the Mushroom Kingdom! Move out!”  
Bowser snapped his fingers and he and his dwindling troops marched out of Moleville. Once they were gone Mario turned to the others.  
“So they’re having trouble fighting the Smithy Gang. I can’t say that doesn’t surprise me.”  
“Do you think that means the rest of them are a lot tougher than Mack and Bowyer?” Mallow asked.  
“Hard to say, Bowser and the Koopa Troop aren’t nearly as strong as they think. Come on, let’s see if there’s at least someone in the item shop.”  
The trio headed into the item shop, where there was one mole woman behind the counter, as well as the town’s children.  
“C’mon in, don’t be shy,” the mole woman said. “Everyone’s up on the mountain, but I’m stuck mindin’ the store and the kids.”  
“Why, what’s going on? Where is everyone?” Geno asked.  
“It’s an emergency! A shootin’ star crashed into the mountain and Dyna ‘n little Mite are trapped in the mines!” one of the mole children said.  
“Oh no! Are they okay?” Mallow asked.  
“We dunno yet, nobody can get in ‘cause the entrance collapsed,” the mole woman explained. “What, what can I getcha?”  
“Three mushrooms and six maple syrups to start. What do you have for gear?”  
The group examined what the shop had to offer. Mario selected a new glove for punching while Mallow picked out a set of cymbals. Geno decided not to get another set of finger shot fingers but did agree to a new cape, as Mario and Mallow got new clothes as well. Once Mario paid for everything and everybody changed into their new gear they set off for the entrance to the coal mines.  
“So the Star Piece crashed into Moleville Mountain,” Geno said. “If the moles can’t get in, then Smithy’s followers can’t either: it’s still in there.”  
“But if nobody can get in, how will we?” Mallow asked. Before either of them could answer a couple of mole women came down from farther up the mountain.  
“If I’d kept diggin’ another minute my claws woulda fallen off,” one of the mole women said.  
“Me too, I just can’t keep up with any of ‘em. But they’re still goin’ strong up there.”  
The trio walked past the mole women and into the mines. Just inside the entrance the path ended, blocked by a partial cave-in. A mole woman paced around while two mole men were digging through the fallen rocks.  
“Oh dear, I sure hope my kids are okay…,” she said worriedly.  
“I know you’re mighty worried, but mopin’ ‘round here ain’t gonna help a thing. Why doncha wait at home for some news?” one of the mole men suggested.  
“I suppose I should…. Please, come get me the moment you find ‘em,” Ma Mole said as she left the mines.  
“I know it’s what I told her, but I don’t think I’d be feelin’ any different if I was in her shoes,” the mole man said after Ma Mole had left.  
“And we ain’t makin’ much progress either,” the other mole said. “If only we could reach the old entrance up there. Then we could get to the kids and get ‘em out.”  
“I wish that Mario fellow were here. He could jump up there in a heartbeat.”  
“Wish granted!” Mario said as he hopped forward. “My friends and I heard the news and came to save Dyna and Mite.”  
“Well, I’ll be a goomba’s uncle! Mario, you’re a lifesaver!” one of the mole men said.  
“But, how can we get up there?” Mallow asked. “Geno and I can’t jump like you can.”  
“We’ll lift ya up,” the other mole said. “Mario can pull you up the rest of the way.”  
“Sounds like a plan,” Mario said as he jumped on the ledge. The two mole men lifted Mallow and Geno as high as they could, allowing Mario to pull them up to the ledge as well. “Keep on digging through the rock fall,” Mario called down to the moles once everyone was safely up there. “We’ll need a way back through here once we find Dyna and Mite.”  
“Send Pa Mole back this way once you find him,” one of the moles called back. “If he starts diggin’ on the other end we’ll break through faster.”  
Mario nodded and the trio dropped down the other side of the rock fall. Fortunately there were lanterns hanging from the walls that illuminated the mine tunnels. Nobody else seemed to be around as they started down the tunnel.  
As Mallow walked into a new room a pile of rocks fell onto his head, knocking him out. As he came to a familiar pair of clawed feet were standing in front of him.  
“H-huh…? What-”  
“C’mon, we got all their crap and their Coins, let’s get outta here!” Croco said to his three underlings. Together the four of them sped off deeper into the mines.  
“No! Get back here you no-good thief!” Mario yelled after them.  
“We have to get back our things!” Mallow said as he got up, rubbing his head a little. “If we beat Croco once we can do it again.”  
“You guys know that reptile?” Geno asked.  
“Croco’s the jerk who stole my Frog Coin yesterday,” Mallow explained as they took off down the tunnel after Croco.  
“He’d stolen a lot of things from the toads in Mushroom Kingdom town too,” Mario added. “Mallow and I chased him down and got everything back. With you here now as well taking him on again should be a snap.”  
Up ahead one of Croco’s three underlings was getting up after tripping. Seeing the trio approach he flung a punch at Mario who countered with one of his own. The junior crook dropped his bag and ran off crying. The group checked the bag, but it only contained rocks.  
“Come on,” Mario said. “Croco isn’t nearly as fast as he thinks he is. We can still stop him.”  
Setting off down the tunnel again they soon found Croco setting a bomb in front of another rockfall, ignoring the tunnel branching off to the right.  
“Heh heh, I always carry a bomb,” he told the two remaining underlings as he lit and stood back. “Never leave home without ‘em!”  
The bomb went off, clearing away the rockfall without further damage to the tunnel. Croco took off through the smoke and dust just before the trio could reach them, but the two underlings were slower. Mallow smashed one on the head with his cymbals while Geno used his finger shot on the other. Like the third crook, they too dropped their bags and fled in tears.  
“Just rocks,” Mallow said as he checked one of the bags.  
“Same here,” Geno said as he looked into the other one. “Croco must not have trusted them with our goods or Coins.”  
They set off down the tunnel again, but didn’t get very far before suddenly finding themselves back in the same room Croco and his underlings knocked them out in.  
“Huh? How-”  
“WHOA!” Croco suddenly said from behind and crashed into the group. Without hesitating Mario punched Croco while Geno used finger shot to shoot him. Mallow meanwhile began to quickly charge up a thunderbolt. “How did they manage to catch me like that?” flowed into Mallow’s head in Croco’s voice just as he unleashed thunderbolt.  
H-huh? What was that? I didn’t think that, Mallow thought to himself as he smashed his cymbals on Croco’s head while he was stunned from the electrical attack.  
Mario used the opportunity to start shooting fireballs at Croco, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from clawing Geno. Croco then started slashing at Mario, who got in another punch. Croco retaliated by smacking him with his tail.  
“I might’ve underestimated ya last time, but you won’t beat me twice-yeoch!” Geno shot Croco again while Mallow smashed his cymbals on Croco’s head. Croco snarled and bit Mallow, but let go with a yelp when Mario started jumping repeatedly on his head.  
“Okayokayokay FINE! You can keep your stupid crap, just let me go!” Croco yelled and dumped the contents of his bag out. Mario jumped off of his head and Croco immediately took off for the entrance of the mines. As he ran by Mallow swore he was crying.  
“Alright, we got everything back!” Mallow cheered while jumping up and down.  
“Plus extra, look,” Mario said and held up a bomb. “Croco must’ve forgotten he still had it when he emptied his bag. If we encounter any other cave-ins we can use this to blast our way through.”  
“Let’s head back to the fork in the tunnels and see where that leads. Maybe Dyna and the Star Piece are down that way,” Geno suggested.  
“Wait,” Mallow said. “Let me heal us first, in case there are monsters back there.” Mallow concentrated and used healing rain on the group. This time Mallow didn’t hear anything. That’s weird. Maybe I just imagined I heard Croco’s voice before.  
Once the last rain drop had fallen the group backtracked to the fork and took the tunnel on the right, entering a new room. A cave in blocked the exit, with a mole man trying to dig his way through.  
“Huh?” he said as he realized the group had entered the room. “Oh! Aren’t you Mario? How did you get here?”  
“We came in to rescue the kids using the old entrance. Are you Pa Mole?”  
“Sure am. My kids are somewhere behind this rock fall, but I can’t seem to dig through. Maybe if the three of you helped we’ll get through yet.”  
“Why don’t we do something better than that?” Mario suggested as he handed Pa Mole the bomb Croco dropped.  
“Why, that’s perfect! Stand back and I’ll get this thing lit.”  
Mallow took several steps back with the others while Pa Mole carefully lit the bomb. Pa Mole quickly stepped back with the others and the bomb went off. When the dust cleared Mallow could see they’d blasted their way through the rocks.  
“If we follow the tunnel we’ll find Dyna and Mite eventually. Let’s mosey along now.”  
“Why don’t you leave this to us? The moles at the entrance specifically asked me to tell you to go back and help them dig through on this side,” Mario told Pa Mole.  
“Well, if that’s the case I’d better get goin’ then. I’ll tell Ma you’re lookin’ for the kids when I get through.”  
Pa turned and headed back toward the entrance while the trio went deeper into the mines. Up ahead a couple of bob-ombs marched towards them.  
“Yikes! Get them before they explode,” Geno said as he quickly shot one. Mario punched the other; fortunately both of them were defeated before they could explode.  
“There’s another one!” Mallow said when a third one appeared. As fast as he could he smashed his cymbals on it, defeating it as well. “I hope there aren’t any more, this could get really dangerous.”  
“If that’s the case, we have a problem,” Geno said as he peered into the next room. “Look!”  
Inside the room dozens of bob-ombs wandered around under the direction of a large, purple bomb with arms and legs. Mallow gulped.  
“All those bob-ombs could bring down half the mountain if they explode,” Mallow whispered.  
“We don’t have a choice, we have to rescue Dyna and Mite and find the Star Piece,” Geno whispered back. “If he wants a confrontation, then we’ll just have to fight carefully. Come on.”  
Mario and Geno walked into the room with Mallow nervously following behind them. The purple bomb turned to them as they approached and smirked.  
“Good day, the name’s Nello…Punchinello!”  
“Punchinello? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of you,” Mallow said.  
“They say I’m a hothead, but I’ll show them!”  
“Who says you’re a hothead?” Mario asked.  
“You! You three will make me famous! So long!” Punchinello exclaimed and snapped his fingers. At his cue micro bob-ombs started marching toward the trio.  
“We’ll see about that!” Geno said as he used his finger shot on the micro bob-ombs, safely taking them out in one go.  
“Not bad, not bad. But let’s up the ante!” Punchinello snapped his fingers. This time regular bob-ombs started marching into battle.  
Mario jumped over and carefully started punching the bob-ombs while Mallow used his cymbals on them. “Yikes!” Mallow exclaimed when the fuse of one of them lit up. Mallow kicked it away from the others and fortunately it didn’t set off the others when it exploded. Geno finished up the last of them using finger shot.  
“Grrr…all right! Now it’s clobbering time!” Punchinello snapped his fingers and the last three bob-ombs, large mezzo bob-ombs, marched over.  
“One for each of us. We can do it!” Geno said as he started shooting at one. Mallow ran up to one of the others and smashed it with his cymbals, but the mezzo bob-omb didn’t seem affected. No good…I’ll have to use thunderbolt, but carefully, Mallow thought and began to charge up energy. “I’ll beat ‘em for the boss!” flowed into his mind as he did so.  
I didn’t imagine it! Mallow realized as he used thunderbolt on the mezzo bob-omb. I’m reading minds! As long as I’m directing my power at someone when I’m charging up, I can read their mind! Mallow smashed the mezzo bob-omb with his cymbals a second time, defeating it. Mallow looked around; Mario and Geno had defeated their mezzo bob-ombs as well.  
“Argh!” Punchinello yelled. “I can’t believe I have to use it on these worthless nobodies!”  
“You’re bluffing,” Mallow said. “There aren’t any more bob-ombs left.”  
“Quiet, fluffy! You guys aren’t worth wasting it on!”  
“Then why don’t you take your best shot?” Geno said.  
“We can handle anything you throw at us,” Mario added.  
“Then you leave me no choice!” Punchinello said, and then jumped. Nothing happened. “Huh? What the heck?” Punchinello started jumping up and down. “Why isn’t this work-ACK!” A massive bob-omb, bigger than all the others combined, fell through the ceiling and onto Punchinello.  
“Oh no!” Mallow exclaimed. “If this thing blows up we’re history!”  
“This is a fine mess we wound up in!” Geno said. “Maybe if no one touches it-” Before Geno could finish a small rock fell onto the massive bob-omb, lighting it’s wick.  
“Oh crap!” Mario yelled. “Take cover, QUICK!” The three of them dove behind a nearby boulder just before it exploded. No, we’re dead, we’re all dead! Huh…? All three of them survived, though covered in soot.  
“Thank the stars! I thought we were dead for sure,” Mallow sighed with relief.  
“Speaking of stars, where are Dyna and the Star Piece?” Geno asked. Something in the ceiling cracked, and seconds later an orange Star Piece fell through the ceiling and landed right before them. “…Well. I guess that answers one question,” Geno smiled.  
Like the previous two, this one circled around them as well, though not only did Mallow feel his injuries heal but the soot disappeared as well. With one final spin it fell into Mario’s hands, and the third Star Piece was theirs.  
“Come on,” Mario said. “Dyna and Mite have to be around here somewhere.” They walked into the room Punchinello was guarding and saw a mole girl with a mole baby strapped to her back trying to push a mine cart.  
“Ugh, stupid cart, move already!” she said as she gave it a shove, but it didn’t budge an inch.  
“Dyna!” Mallow exclaimed and ran over. “Are you okay?”  
“Hiya Mallow! Did you get trapped in here, too? I didn’t know your Grandpa took you to Moleville yesterday,” Dyna said. Mallow shook his head.  
“No, I came to rescue you with Mario and Geno,” Mallow said, gesturing to the other two.  
“Really? Neat! If we can get this mine cart goin’ we can get out in a jiffy!”  
“You kids get in the cart,” Mario told them. “Geno and I will get this thing moving and then hop in with you.”  
Mallow and Dyna climbed into the cart and stood in the front while Mario and Geno started pushing on the cart. Slowly it began moving, and once it picked up enough speed Mario and Geno jumped in, Mario standing in the front with the kids while Geno stood in the back, gripping the sides of the cart. A sharp slope down in the track appeared up ahead.  
“Alright kids,” Mario said. “When we go over the drop, be sure to throw your hands in the air and scream!”  
“Yeah!” Mallow and Dyna exclaimed together. Oh my gosh this is going to be awesome!  
“What? No, Mario, we need to hold on tight at times!” Geno nervously said just before the cart hit the slope and dropped.  
Mallow, Dyna, and Mario ignored Geno and flung their arms in the air while screaming with delight. The mine cart increased its speed significantly as it went down the twisting track, left, right, right, left again, straight, down another drop, right again. This is so much fun, I love it! We have to do it again!  
On the crazy mine track went, a small dot of light indicating the exit appearing up ahead. Gradually the light got bigger and brighter until quite suddenly they burst out of the mountain…and right off the track!  
“Oh no! Everybody hold on!” Geno yelled from the back. This time Mallow did grab onto the cart and held on tight, bracing himself for impact. The mine cart smashed through a roof and landed in the middle of a mole living room.  
“We’re home!” Dyna announced as she hopped out of the cart.  
“Gracious! They really did drop in on us!” Ma Mole exclaimed and rushed over. “Oh, my poor babies! Are you okay? Is little Mite hurt?”  
“Naw, we’re fine, we had fun! Right Mallow?”  
“Right!” Mallow said as he climbed out of the cart with Mario and Geno. Mite laughed in agreement with the other two.  
“He’s been knocked senseless! My poor baby, you’re safe now,” Ma Mole said as she lifted him out of the carrier before turning her attention to Dyna. “Dyna! Haven’t I told you a million times to never go in the mines?! Look how dangerous it is!”  
“That’s enough now, Ma,” Pa Mole said, stepping in. “Just be happy to have ‘em back.” He turned to the trio and shook everyone’s hands. “Thank you so much, you three. You did a fine job at rescuing them!”  
“I’m so embarrassed. We can’t thank you enough for everythin’!” Ma Mole said.  
“Listen, about the roof-” Mario started to say but Ma Mole shook her head.  
“Naw, that don’t matter none, right?”  
“It ain’t nothin’ at all! You just leave the repairs to me. If any of you need repairs, just give me a holler sometime. Thanks again for bringing home our babies.” Mallow smiled at his kind words, but couldn’t help from feeling a sad pang in his chest. I wonder…will I ever get to hear my parents thank Mario for bringing me home too?  
“It was no trouble at all. Be sure to take care.”  
“Bye Mallow!” Dyna waved. “Come back and play sometime, okay? We’ll go on another mine cart ride!”  
“You bet!” Mallow waved back. “That sounds like a ton of fun!”  
The trio exited the mole house and into a brilliant sunset. Mario stretched and sighed.  
“What a long day! Come on; let’s go check in at the inn and rest.”  
“That sounds like a good idea,” Geno agreed. “Maybe somebody there saw where one of the other three Star Pieces fell.”  
“Yeah, maybe,” Mallow said. “Sooo, before we go to the inn, how about we go on another mine cart ride? It was so much fun!”  
“Ah, no,” Geno said. “Once was more than enough.”  
“That was a lot of fun, yeah,” Mario said. “But I agree with Geno, once was enough.”  
“Aw, c’mon!” Mallow followed the others. “You guys are no fun!”


	5. Mayhem in Marrymore

“What a lovely day,” Geno said as they walked out of the Moleville inn the next morning. “Seeing it from this perspective is quite nice.”  
The sky was storm free to the east and west, just dotted with puffy cumulus clouds. Mallow looked at the clouds and smiled.  
“I like looking up at the clouds and seeing what kind of things they look like. And when I charge up and concentrate like I do with thunderbolt and healing rain, I can change the clouds to make them look like whatever I want,” Mallow said and then smirked. “Want me to change one of the clouds into a ‘message’ for that dumb sword?” But Mario wasn’t listening. He looked up at the clouds with a sad expression and sighed.  
“Princess Toadstool liked to pick shapes out of the clouds, too,” he said. “If none of this had happened she would’ve said today would be perfect for a picnic, or a stroll in the castle gardens, or maybe even go-kart racing.”  
“I’m sure she’s alright wherever she is,” Geno said. “And I’m equally sure she’ll turn up soon as well.”  
Mallow wasn’t listening to Geno try to cheer up Mario. Instead he was watching who he recognized as Booster’s snifits chasing a beetle around Moleville with butterfly nets. That’s kinda strange, Mallow thought. Booster likes to catch his own beetles. I wonder if he’s sick. As Mallow watched the beetle flew over towards them and landed on Geno’s hat.  
“Hey Geno, I think it likes you,” Mallow laughed.  
“Well, I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual so could someone get it off of me, please?” Geno asked. Mario reached over to grab it just as Booster’s snifits arrived.  
“Don’t you dare touch that beetle!” Snifit Number One yelled. “It’s a present for Booster.”  
“That’s right!” Number Two added. “Just hand it over, nice and easy.”  
“Uh, yeah, like they said. Or we won’t be your friends.”  
“Where’s Booster?” Mallow asked. “How come he’s not catching his own beetles today?”  
“Because he’s busy keeping the sky princess entertained,” Number Two answered.  
“That’s why we’re catching beetles for him,” Number Three said.  
“So, hand it over!” Number One said.  
“And make it snappy!”  
“Uh…pretty please?”  
Before anyone could say anything else the beetle flew off of Geno’s hat and flew away, the three snifits chasing after it again.  
“Princess Toadstool must be Booster’s ‘sky princess’, I just know it!” Mario exclaimed. “We gotta find out where Booster lives right away!”  
“Over there,” Mallow said and pointed at a tower perched atop a nearby hill. “That’s Booster Tower,” Mallow led them out of Moleville to Booster Pass. “Booster Tower is full of toys and games and Booster lets kids come over and play there with him and the snifits. I think the Moleville kids go all the time, and the ones in Rose Town too, but Grandpa only took me just once. I don’t think he likes Booster for some reason.”  
“We don’t have any time to play,” Mario said as they headed up the pass. “As soon as we fetch Toadstool we’re taking her back home to her castle.”  
“Yeah, I know,” Mallow said, but feeling a little disappointed just the same.  
Booster pass was as rugged and sparsely vegetated as the rest of the immediate Moleville area. Several spikesters wandering around the pass turned aggressive at the sight of the trio and started shooting spikes at the heroes. Mallow didn’t hesitate, quickly charging and releasing thunderbolt on the group, defeating them. Two more rushed over to help their fallen companions. Mario carefully punched one, avoiding the spikes, while Geno shot the other. Both of them collapsed as well.  
Continuing along, as they passed by a bush it started shooting electricity at the group, revealing itself to be an articoker. Geno shot at the bush to no effect, but when Mario shot several fireballs at the articoker it immediately burned up.  
Up ahead the ground leveled out; unlike the rest of the immediate area the landscaping around Booster Tower was elaborate, featuring many tropical trees and bushes. And standing by himself at the base of the tower was none other than Bowser.  
“Booster has such a nice place…I miss my castle,” Bowser said as he looked Booster Tower up and down. “I miss the good old days…Toadstool screaming in terror, Mario charging in to save her…,” Bowser turned around and Mallow was shocked to see he actually had tears on his cheeks.  
“Oh crap, it’s Mario! And some friends of his!” Bowser yelped and turned back around. “Oops! Okay, calm down, don’t let him see you like this,” he told himself before turning around again. “Hey, how’s it goin’?” Bowser whipped back around again. “No! Not like that, stupid! The tone is all wrong, and there’s no confidence at all!” As he watched him Mallow had to keep himself from laughing. Is this what he’s really like? No wonder Mario isn’t afraid of him!  
“You!” Bowser finally said as he turned around again. “What’re you losers doing here?”  
“I should be asking you that,” Mario said. “Shouldn’t you be in your castle right now coming up with some evil plan?”  
“Yeah, well…I decided to take a vacation!” Bowser growled at Mario. “But I bet if Toadstool were at my castle right now, she’d be crying like a baby thinking you’d be coming to save her!” Bowser started laughing.  
“Mario!” a woman’s voice called down from above. “I’m up here! Help me!”  
“Princess Toadstool!” Mario and Bowser exclaimed in unison before glaring at each other.  
“Heh, I’m cutting my vacation short and headin’ home to my castle. Outta my way, pasta breath,” Bowser said as he shoved by them.  
“Do you think I should’ve read his mind before he left, and find out what he’s up to?” Mallow asked once Bowser had gone.  
“What? No, Bowser’s easy to read, no need to use the new ‘psychopath’ ability you told us about,” Mario said. “He’s going to wait for us to leave and then try to capture the princess. But that won’t happen because-huh?” Mario tried the tower door, but it was locked tight.  
“That’s odd,” Mallow said. “Visitors are usually welcome to the tower.”  
“How about I blast the door down using Geno Beam?” Geno suggested.  
“What?! You guys are still here?” Everybody turned around; Bowser was standing right behind them.  
“Oh, I get it,” Bowser laughed. “You can’t get in, right? Pathetic. Watch this!” Bowser pushed by them and flung himself into the door, breaking it right off the hinges. “I know, I’m amazing, right? All this muscle and good looks. Right now you’re thinking ‘wow, somebody like that would be actually useful in this team!’ Well guess what, I’m recruiting! Normally you three wouldn’t make the cut, but I’m feelin’ generous today. I’ll let you three join the Koopa Troop. You can thank me later.”  
Mallow and Geno turned to Mario. Mario looked at them and shrugged.  
“Uh…okay. Sure, we’ll join,” Mario said. Bowser laughed and strolled into Booster Tower. “But keep a close eye on him,” Mario whispered to Mallow and Geno as they stepped over the broken door. “The moment he tries anything funny, attack him, especially if it involves kidnapping Toadstool.”  
“Okay,” Mallow whispered back. Geno nodded.  
Inside the lobby Number One was sitting behind a receptionist’s desk decorated with a beetle statue. Several blue spookums were loitering around as well.  
“Hello there,” Snifit Number One said once all four of them were in the lobby. “Booster’s busy right now, so he can’t play today. Come back some other time, or you can try to force your way in….”  
“Second option sounds good!” Bowser said as he went around the desk and clawed Number One. Snifit Number One began spitting bullets everywhere, which Geno countered by shooting him with finger shot. Mario leapt over the desk and onto Number One’s head, knocking him out.  
“Looks like Booster’s friendliness came to an end. Come on, the sooner we get the princess out of here, the better,” Mario said. As they went up the first flight of stairs, the group noticed portraits hanging on the walls alongside the stairs.  
“Who are these losers?” Bowser asked.  
“Booster’s ancestors, according to Booster,” Mallow answered.  
“That one looks like someone dressed as Mr. T,” Mario mumbled as they reached the top of the stairs. The group found themselves in a short hallway with small train tracks overhead that spanned the length of the hallway.  
“Hey!” a sudden voice made everyone jump. “What’s the big rush?” A large toy train, ridden by Booster himself, pulled into the hallway and stopped. “I’m Booster and this is my famous tower of amusement and fun and more amusement! Normally I welcome visitors to come play with me and my snifits, but a few days ago this pretty girl fell out of the sky and right into my lap! So now I’m busy having fun and planning my wedding with her and don’t have time to play with others right now. See ya!” Booster said as he started up the train again.  
“What?! Get back here right now!” Mario and Bowser both yelled and tried to chase the train. At the opposite end of the hallway Number Two came out of the next room and tried to block their path.  
“Please refrain from bothering Booster right now, he’s very busy-yikes!” Bowser picked up Snifit Number Two and flung him down the stairs.  
“There’s no way Toadstool wants to marry that guy!” Mario said. “We gotta get her out of here right away.”  
“Hey, what’s this?” Geno asked as he picked up a hammer from beneath the train tracks. Mario picked it up and examined it. “Masher” was written on the handle.  
“Looks pretty powerful, great find, Geno,” Mario said as he took it with them into the next room. Rob-ombs playing with bouncy balls abandoned their game to charge at the group. Mario started swatting them away using the masher while Geno used Geno Beam on a group of them.  
“Pathetic, real men use real weapons or nothing at all,” Bowser said as he grabbed a rob-omb and tossed it into the remaining group, blowing all of them up. Mario rolled his eyes and led the group through another hallway, and up another flight of stairs. Blocking their way into the next room was Number Three.  
“You wanna fight?!” he said and used a weak bolt attack on Mallow.  
“You call that an electrical attack? Watch this!” Mallow said and charged up. “Can’t let Booster be bothered!” flowed into Mallow’s mind before using thunderbolt on Number Three. Snifit Number Three fainted.  
“Great job, your attacks are definitely getting stronger,” Geno said as they made their way through an empty room with board games stacked up.  
“You really think so?” Mallow asked, blushing.  
“No doubt about it!”  
Up another flight of stairs and the next hallway had more portraits of Booster’s so-called ancestors, but the order of the paintings was different. There were two doors in this hallway, one of which had a big padlock on it.  
“What’s this, some sorta memory game? I hate memory games,” Bowser grumbled. Geno looked at the portraits before tapping on each one of them in the same order as the portraits from before. When he had finished the sixth and final painting spat out a key.  
“Nice job, Geno,” Mario said as he picked up the key. “Come on, let’s see what Booster’s hiding in here,” he said as he unlocked the door and opened it up. Inside was a single chain chomp tied to the far wall. It started barking like crazy when the door opened, but stopped when it saw Bowser. Mallow noticed they were staring into each other’s eyes.  
“She’s a bit shy you guys. Turn around, will ya?” Bowser said. Mallow shrugged and turned with the others.  
“Okay, you can look back!” Bowser said after a couple of seconds. “She says she’s been locked up ever since she took a bite out of Booster. But now that I’m here she wants to help us stir up some trouble!” Bowser laughed and swung the chain chomp around over his head.  
“Yeah, sure, why not?” Mario said.  
Across the hallway and into the next, exceptionally tall, room was nothing except for a thwomp on a seesaw. There was no other door in the room.  
“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?” Geno asked while looking around. “I don’t see any way to continue from here.  
“Sure there is,” Mallow said. “Watch!” Mallow walked over to the seesaw and hopped on it. The thwomp went airborne for a moment before slamming back down onto the seesaw, sending Mallow flying into the air. Mallow safely landed on a ledge high in the room. After several seconds Mario came flying up as well, followed by Geno and then Bowser. The next room was laid in the same dimensions and squares as a giant chessboard but was otherwise empty.  
“When I was here there were giant chess and checker pieces set up in here,” Mallow said. “I wonder why Booster removed them.”  
“Because this room has ‘trap’ written all over it,” Bowser said. “Trust me, I’m an expert on traps.”  
Sure enough as they started to cross the chessboard fireballs popped out of the floor all over the place. Mario started swatting them with the masher while Bowser swung the chain chop around. Geno started firing Geno Beam while Mallow unleashed thunderbolt. When the last fireball fizzled out the group was able to safely cross to the other side of the chessboard.  
Up another flight of stairs and into a room featuring more train tracks, as soon as they entered they heard Booster’s toy train approaching.  
“Chugga chugga chugga choo-chooooo!” Booster made train noises as he rode into the room. “Huh? You guys are still here?” Booster said when he saw the group watching him from down below. “Maybe since you’re here you can tell me what ‘Mario please help me’ means. My bride-to-be has been chanting it since you arrived this morning.”  
“You gotta be kidding me, right?” Mario said while facepalming.  
“Nope! Hey…isn’t ‘Mario’ a guy’s name? What if you’re ‘Mario’?”  
“Congrats, you figured out my name. Only took you half the morning.”  
“I won’t let you take my bride away! You can take these instead!” Booster said as he started throwing bob-ombs wearing parachutes.  
“I don’t think so. Come on!” Mario said as he led the group out of the room before the bob-ombs could reach them. The next room had chain chomps all over the place.  
“Heh, now it’s our time to shine. Go get ‘em, Chomp!” Bowser flung his chain chomp into the room. Chomp fought viciously with the other chain chomps until she was the only one left. Jeeze, I’m glad I’m not a chain chomp! Mallow thought as they climbed the final flight of stairs and found themselves in Booster’s room at last. There were several cages with beetles in them and a box of toys and dolls, but no sign of the princess.  
“Toadstool?” Mario called out. “Are you here?”  
“Mario!” The princess’ voice came through the door on the other side of the room. “You did come to save me! I was so frightened and lonely. That guy wants to marry me, you know!”  
“Yeah, we heard,” Mario said. “Come on, let’s-huh?” Mario tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked. Do you know where the key is?”  
“No, Booster put some sort of password spell on it, but I don’t know what it is. What’re we going to do?”  
“Aha!” Booster’s voice came up from the base of the stairs.  
“Oh crap, Booster’s coming, we gotta hide! Toadstool, pretend we’re not here, okay?” Mario whispered and looked around. The only place any of them could hide was behind the curtains. The group rushed behind them and got the curtains closed just as Booster came up into his room with his snifits.  
“Boss, shouldn’t we be concentrating on the girl?” Number One asked Booster.  
“Good idea! So about the girl in my life who thinks I should marry her, what should we do?  
“A wedding ceremony would be a great party!” Number two said.  
“Ooh, a party! We haven’t had one of those yet! Sounds fun! By the way, what’s a party?” Booster asked. Geno groaned and Mallow giggled.  
“You drink punch and eat cake! I think…,” Number Three told him.  
“Drink punch…? Eat cake…? Sounds…complicated!” Mallow giggled louder and Mario elbowed him to be quiet. “Come on, let’s do a wedding rehersal!” The group could hear Booster and his snifits move around before Number One started speaking again.  
“Now we begin the ceremony. Walk down the aisle with your beautiful bride-to-be and be sure to smile!”  
“Wait!” Booster said. “Isn’t this is the part where Mario shows up and ruins everything? Let’s rehearse that too. Go get the Mario doll.” The snifits, by the sound of it, looked all around the room before eventually giving up.  
“It’s not here,” all three snifits said in unison.  
“Of course it’s here, you lazy slobs couldn’t find water if you were fish! …It’s behind those curtains! Number One, go look for it.”  
The group exchanged silent looks of horror and began to carefully shuffle out of the way as Snifit Number One started looking through the curtains. Mallow had to stand next to Geno to successfully manage it.  
“It’s not here,” Number One said.  
“I wouldn’t lose my Mario doll, you idiots! It’s a collector’s item! Number Two, you look too!”  
Mario squeezed next to Bowser, and again they carefully avoided the snifits as they searched behind the curtains.  
“Not here,” both snifits said.  
“I know it’s here! Go help them Number Three.”  
Horrified, Mallow, Geno, and Mario all climbed on top of Bowser just before the curtains started opening again. Bowser dodged left and right but managed to evade all three snifits.  
“Wait a sec, this is better than a party. Look out ‘cause here I come!” Booster said as he flung open the last curtain, exposing the group. “Wait a minute! It’s right up there!” Booster pointed to a shelf directly above the last curtain; the Mario doll sat upon it. “But…how can we reach up there? What’ll I do?” Booster started wailing.  
Cautiously ignoring Booster, the group started to climb down from Bowser. Mario accidentally bumped the bottom of the shelf as he did, which knocked the Mario doll down to the floor.  
“Gosh, you’re so kind!” Booster immediately stopped crying and ran up to Mario. “Here, you can take this for getting my doll,” Booster said as he shoved a large sack of money into his hands.  
“Er…you’re welcome?”  
“Alright, cancel the rehearsal ‘cause I’m tired of waiting. Let’s go to Marrymore right now!” Booster said and walked up to the door. “Here’s the password: Sixty-four!” The lock clicked open and Booster and the snifits filed through.  
“Oh no you don’t!” Mario chased after them, closely followed by the others. Out on the balcony two mean clowns, one juggling knives, the other balancing on a ball, blocked their path: Booster, the snifits, and Toadstool were already gone.  
“You’re not going anywhere,” the one with knives said. “The boss doesn’t want anyone interrupting his wedding. Let’s take ‘em out, Grate Guy!”  
“They don’t stand a chance against my magic, Knife Guy!” Grate Guy laughed and blasted the group with chunks of ice.  
Bowser swung his chain chomp at Grate Guy just as Knife Guy started throwing knives all over the place. Mallow charged up thunderbolt: “They can’t beat us!” flowed into his head from both of them as he charged. We’ll see about that! Mallow thought as he used thunderbolt. Knife Guy seemed slightly stunned, but Grate Guy looked barely affected by it.  
Geno started shooting at Grate Guy, then used Geno Beam on him. Mario started blasting Knife Guy with fireballs, setting his elaborate costume on fire.  
“Ouch, yeoch! Help me, Grate Guy! Put it out!”  
“I’m on it!” Grate Guy said and blasted Knife Guy with a snow-based attack. The magic put out the flames…and knocked out Knife Guy. “Oh no! I didn’t mean to do that! Er, uh…”  
“How about some of this?!” Bowser said and threw Chomp at Grate Guy’s ball. The chain chomp bit the ball and popped it. Grate Guy fell whacked his head, and fainted.  
“We gotta hurry after Booster,” Mario said. “Let’s jump; if he could do it, than so can we!”  
“Wait!” Mallow said. “Shouldn’t I heal everyone first?”  
“There’s no time! We can’t let them get to Marrymore!” Mario said and jumped off the balcony. Bowser jumped after him, and so did Geno, then Mallow. Fortunately the landing didn’t hurt anybody.  
Back down Booster Pass they ran, down the foothills of Moleville Mountain, and down the road leading to Marrymore. At the foot of Booster Hill they finally caught up to Booster, Toadstool, and the snifits. Man, am I exhausted…! Mallow thought when they caught up to them.  
“Mario, help me!” Toadstool exclaimed when she saw Mario.  
“Uh oh, we didn’t plan for this part,” Booster said. “Mario, you and your friends aren’t invited to our wedding. But if you want we can race up to Marrymore. Let’s go!” Booster said as he took off up the hill carrying Toadstool, closely followed by Mario, followed by the snifits, followed by Geno, followed by Bowser.  
“Oh come on!” Mallow yelled as he chased after them. Quickly Mallow fell far behind the group as they raced up the hill. I hate these stubby legs! If I make it to high school I am, never, ever, ever trying out for track! Huffing and puffing Mallow finally made it to the top, where the rest of the group was waiting for him. Mallow started to sit down, but Mario pulled him up and hauled him into Marrymore.  
“No time to rest, they already beat us here!”  
“Easy…for you to…ugh…say…,” Mallow panted and looked around; aside from an elaborate hotel and the wedding chapel there didn’t seem to be much else to Marrymore. Over by the chapel toads were rushing out of the entrance. They seemed upset about something.  
“Help!” a toad bride and groom yelled as they were booted out of the chapel. Number One stuck his head out the door.  
“We’re having Booster’s wedding now,” he said. “I’m barricading the door so nobody can bother us! And I locked the back door too! I think…,” Number One said as he shut the door.  
“Oh no, what’ll we do?” the toad bride started to cry. Mallow recognized her as Raini and the groom as Raz from the Mushroom Kingdom town.  
“D-don’t cry!” Raz tried to comfort her. “We’ll think of something.”  
“Leave this to us,” Mario said to them. “We’ll sneak in through the back and kick ‘em out. Promise!”  
The group walked around the side of the chapel before finding the back door. Luckily it was unlocked and they followed some stairs down into the kitchen.  
“Vait until za groom sees zis amazing cake,” the koopa chef said to himself as he and his apprentice worked on large something Mallow could only charitably call a cake. Going up the other set of stairs they arrived up in the entrance hall of the chapel.  
“Hey, how’d you get in here, you Mario lookalike?” Number One said by the entrance, where he was piling the chapel’s decorations in front of the door. “It’s time for Booster’s wedding now! Make like Mario and jump out of here, all of you!”  
“I am Mario! And Princess Toadstool doesn’t want to marry Booster!”  
“Uh oh…we got a problem. I’d better tell Booster right away,” Number One said as he tried to run through the doors leading into the wedding hall, but bounced right off of them. “I can’t budge it. Hey, how about a little help here?”  
“Allow me,” Bowser cracked his knuckles and laughed. Bowser and Number One thrust their weight on the door and burst through into a small waiting room. Bowser stopped just inside the room, but Number One crashed into Number Two and fell into the wedding hall proper.  
“Booster, Mario’s here,” Number One and Two said together.  
“Shut it! Shut it now! Hurry!” Booster yelled and the door slammed shut again before the group could get through.  
“They think this flimsy little door can stop me? I’m lightning in a bottle: earthquake in a can! I’ll break through here without breaking a sweat,” Bowser laughed again and flung himself against the door. Nothing happened. “Argh! Stupid door, break already!”  
“Looks like this one requires group effort,” Mario said.  
“Hey, that’s a great idea! Glad I thought of it!” Bowser said. Mario just rolled his eyes.  
“All together now: one…two…three!” On “three” the entire group rushed the door and broke it open, sending the three snifits flying into Booster and Toadstool. Some of Toadstool’s accessories went flying from the impact.  
“Oh no, now I’ve lost my shoes, my special mushroom ring, my brooch, and my crown, and I’m being married to some freak!” Toadstool broke down crying. “This is the worst day of my entire life!”  
“Come on, we’re getting impatient, let’s start this wedding already,” Booster said and turned toward the princess. “Huh? Water coming out of your eyes? Are you leaking?” Booster asked and tasted one of the tears.  
“Booster, sir, I believe those are tears because she’s crying,” Number Two said.  
“Crying? But that’s what people do when they’re sad! What’s making her cry, anyways?”  
“Well, she did drop some of her gear,” Number Three said.  
“Then go fetch her stuff while we get married,” Booster said as he hauled Toadstool up to the altar and stood on the left.  
“Uh, Booster, you’re supposed to be the one on the right,” Number One told him.  
“Just testing you!” Booster switched places with the princess. “Now go get her stuff!”  
“Let’s fetch Toadstool’s things before the snifits do,” Mario said. “And then put a stop to this wedding!”  
“Great idea, Mario!” Mallow said.  
“We’re on it!” Geno said.  
Mallow crawled under the benches on the right and found Toadstool’s favorite sapphire brooch. Mallow grabbed the brooch and ran to the altar, where Geno was waiting with her ring. Bowser brought her shoes and Mario grabbed the crown.  
“Alright Booster, there’s no way you’re marrying Princess Toadstool! She doesn’t want to and I won’t let it!” Mario said.  
“About time you found her gear,” Booster said as he grabbed everything from them and shoved into Toadstool’s hands. “Wait, you’re Mario! I told you that you weren’t invited, you wedding crashers!”  
“Mario! You’re here!” Toadstool exclaimed as she slipped back on her shoes and ring, attached her brooch, and set her crown back on her head. Then she turned and finally noticed Bowser was accompanying them. “Eek!” She ran back from him. “What’s Bowser doing here?!”  
“Wasting my time! I’ve got bigger fish to fry you know,” Bowser grumbled and crossed his arms.  
“Believe it or not he’s harmless right now,” Mario told her. “We’ve got everything under control.”  
“Oh, well, if you say it’s safe then I guess it must be safe then,” Toadstool said and smiled.  
“Nice to meet you, your majesty!” Mallow said and bowed. “My name’s Mallow, and I’m helping Mario!”  
“A pleasure to meet you, your majesty,” Geno also bowed. “My name is Geno, and I’m also working with Mario,”  
“Oh, no need to be so formal! Just call me Toadstool!” Toadstool said and turned back to Mario. “Now, how about a kiss for my hero!”  
“Hey!” Bowser said. “I did all the hard work you know! I deserve that kiss.”  
“Me too! I want a kiss! Gimmie a kiss!” Booster yelled and started jumping up and down.  
“Stop it; I’m not kissing either one of you!” Toadstool said. Closing her eyes she started to more towards Mario.  
“No way, I’m getting that kiss!” Bowser said as he closed his eyes and ran forward. Booster, also closing his eyes, ran towards the princess as well. Both of them shoved Princess Toadstool aside and kissed Mario on his cheeks!  
“Feels like…sandpaper!” Bowser and Booster said in unison before they, and Mario, opened their eyes and realized what they’d done. All three of them yelled and jumped back from each other. Toadstool, Geno, and Mallow were cracking up at the sight.  
“Now that’s something I won’t forget!” Toadstool said as she wiped away a few tears from laughing so hard.  
“Yeah, well, let’s get outta here,” Mario said. “Everybody at the castle is worried about you.”  
“Yes,” Toadstool agreed. “Let’s get back to the castle right away.”  
“Tada!” the chef and his apprentice from downstairs said as they entered the wedding hall. Between them they hauled the worst mess of a cake Mallow had ever seen. Ugh, they even drew eyes and mouths on every tier! Why’d they do something like that?  
“Vee haf made za most amazing cake-huh?” The chef looked around. “Vhere are bride und groom? Und za guests?!”  
“Well, you see, they got kicked out of the chapel by Booster, but if you wait a few minutes-”  
“Zey are gone? Ist your fault, isn’t it?!” the chef said as he pointed angrily at Mario.  
“No no, trust me, those guys over there did it-”  
“You fools!” the chef and apprentice yelled as they pulled out rolling pins and frying pans.  
“Toadstool you’d better take cover!” Mario yelled as he dodged a hit from a rolling pin. Toadstool dove behind the benches just as Mario got whacked on the head by a frying pan.  
“Hey, chill out!” Geno yelled and used finger shot at the two koopas, but missed and hit the cake instead. The chef roared in fury and started smacking Geno with a frying pan.  
“C-chef Torte!” cried the apprentice. “I saw the cake moving!”  
“No ist not!” Chef Torte replied. “Go und teach zees vedding vreckers a lesson!”  
“But we didn’t wreck anything-ow! Hey! Stop it!” Mallow yelled as the apprentice whacked him with a rolling pin. Mallow started to charge up thunderbolt, but before anything could happen the apprentice ran back over to Chef Torte.  
“Chef Torte! The cake’s moving again!”  
“Ist not moving!” Chef yelled and pointed to it. “You are avoiding duties vith dumb lies!” But as everyone watched the cake came to life, not only moving but shooting ice and light beams from its three tiers. “Za cake ist alive! Run for it!” Chef Torte screamed as he ran out of the wedding hall.  
“I told you it was moving!” the apprentice yelled after him as he also fled the wedding hall.  
“Great, they’re the ones that caused this mess, but we have to deal with it!” Bowser growled.  
“There’s no time to complain!” Geno said has he dodged ice shards from the top tier. Geno fired Geno Beam at the top of the cake, sending icing and bits of cake flying.  
Bowser swung and threw his chain chomp into the cake, where it started to tear off chunks of cake and flung them everywhere. Mario, moving into the blizzard attack the lower tier was using, started smashing the bottom tier of the cake.  
“We’re delicious!” flowed into Mallow’s mind as he charged up thunderbolt a second time. This time he was able to unleash it on their foe, briefly halting the attacks long enough for him to use his cymbals on the cake. Geno joined his side and shot the middle tier using finger shot. With only mostly the bottom tier remaining Booster arrived on the scene and hopped on top of the cake.  
“Hey, snifits! Where’s the cake? I wanna eat cake!”  
“Um, Booster,” Number One said as he came over with the other two. “There’s a seventy percent chance the object you’re standing on is a cake.”  
“This is a cake? How amazing!” Booster said as he hopped off of it and looked it over. “So…how do I eat it? Do I boil it first?”  
“Way too messy. How about you just swallow it?” Number two suggested.  
“In one gulp? Great idea! I’ll open up and you three toss it in!” Booster opened his mouth as wide as he could. The three snifits grabbed the bottom tier of the cake and tossed it into Booster’s mouth.  
“Mmmm, delicious!” Booster choked out after managing, somehow, to swallow it. “So good it makes me want to cry!” Booster belched, patted his stomach, and grinned. “Well, the wedding is officially over now! Let’s head home and catch beetles!” Booster said as he ran out of the wedding hall, closely followed by the three snifits.  
“Thank the stars that’s over,” Toadstool said as she came out from behind the benches while the group wiped bits of cake and frosting off themselves. “Here, let me heal you before we go,” she said as she held her arms wide and healed everyone at once. As they started to leave the chapel they found Raz, Raini, and their guests standing around the entrance hall.  
“Mario, those creepy guys left. Does that mean we can have our wedding after all?” Raz asked.  
“You bet. Good luck you too!”  
“Oh, Raz, I’m so happy we get to have our wedding after all!” Raini exclaimed.  
“Me too! Let’s start back from the beginning,” Raz said as the group left the chapel.  
“Um, Mario,” Toadstool whispered. “What about the mess left behind from that awful cake?”  
“They can deal with that themselves,” Mario said. “We already had to deal with it once. We don’t need to clean it up too. Besides, you’re needed back at the castle now.”  
“Yes,” Toadstool nodded. “Let’s go home!”  
________________________________________  
“There you are Mario, you never returned from Tadpole Pond the other day-Princess Toadstool!”  
“I’m finally home!” Toadstool said as she stepped forward. “Mario and his friends saved me from a terrible fate!”  
“Let’s go see the chancellor right away, he’s been worried sick!” Toad led everyone to the throne room. “Chancellor, Princess Toadstool’s back!” Toad yelled as he burst through the doors of the throne room. The chancellor rushed across the throne room to Toadstool as she entered; even the mushroom retainers abandoned their posts to gather around the princess.  
“Thank the stars!” the chancellor said. “We’ve been so worried about you! Come, let’s get out of this drafty doorway so we can talk properly,” he said as he led the princess over to her throne. The mushroom retainers assembled back into their proper positions, but Toadstool chose to stand next to the chancellor.  
“Mario,” Toadstool said. “I’m ever so thankful for the assistance of you and your friends. But…how in the world can you trust Bowser?”  
“Bowser?” the chancellor asked. “What do you-egad!” he exclaimed as he and the other mushroom retainers finally noticed Bowser standing in the room. “What is going on here?!”  
“It’s okay, everything is under control,” Mario reassured the toads. “We traveled all the way back here without any problems, after all!”  
“Er, I-I see,” the chancellor said.  
“Bowser, perhaps you should tell us your story,” Toadstool said to Bowser. “What did you mean when you said you had ‘bigger fish to fry’?”  
Bowser crossed his arms and looked away from everybody and mumbled to himself. Mario stepped forward.  
“How about Bowser and I act out the events from the other day? Mallow can narrate for us. Geno, we’ll let you explain about the Star Road.”  
“Works for me,” Geno said.  
“Well…okay then,” Mallow cleared his throat. “A few days ago Bowser had kidnapped the princess as usual and Mario went to his castle to save her. But just as he rescued her, a huge sword crashed down into Bowser’s Keep and flung all three of them out in different directions!” As Mallow talked Bowser laid down in the role of his castle while Mario jumped on top of him as the sword. “Now Bowser’s Keep is under the control of some jerk named ‘Smithy’.”  
“They threw me out of my own…I mean, I went to go take vacation when they moved in like a bunch of squatters!” Bowser said. “And my kids didn’t even do anything about it, can you believe it? They are so grounded when I get back!  
“Anyways, I was just sitting around trying to think of a plan to get my castle back when Mario and these two came up to me and begged to join the Koopa Troop! Normally they wouldn’t make the cut but they wanted to join so much I had no choice but to allow it. You should’ve seen it, it was pathetic!”  
“What? That’s nothing at all like how it happened!” Mario said.  
“It’s okay Mario,” Toadstool whispered. “We know Bowser must be stretching the truth a lot,” Toadstool turned towards Mallow. “So Mallow, why are you traveling with Mario? You do have powerful magic, but you seem awfully young to be out on a journey.”  
“Well, I found out I was adopted so Mario agreed to help me find my family while I help him fight the Smithy Gang,” Mallow explained.  
“Oh dear, you poor thing! I hope you find your parents soon!”  
“Me too!”  
“And Geno, what about you? Why are you traveling with them to stop Smithy?” Toadstool asked as she turned to Geno.  
“I’m actually a star from Star Haven inhabiting this form temporarily. The sword in Bowser’s Keep smashed through the Star Road on the way down and shattered it. I’ve come down to find the seven Star Pieces and repair the Star Road.”  
“But…what is Star Road?” Toadstool asked.  
“The Star Road grants everyone’s wishes,” Geno explained. “Unless all seven Star Pieces are gathered I can’t rebuild the Star Road. And if Star Road can’t be rebuilt wishes will cease for all time!”  
“Oh no! This is terrible news! …Isn’t it?” At the princess’ words the entire group facefaulted.  
“Indeed it is,” Geno confirmed as he stood up again. “For example, let’s say Bowser kidnapped you again. Without wish-granting powers of Star Road you’d probably never be rescued!”  
“I dunno, that sounds pretty good to me!” Bowser said and laughed. Quickly Mallow, Geno, and Mario stood between Bowser and Toadstool. “Let’s just forget about these Star thingys and get going, eh Toadstool?”  
“Great. And you can forget about getting your castle back, then!” Toadstool crossed her arms and told Bowser.  
“W-what? Er, let’s see…if Mario can’t find those stars Toadstool is mine! But then I won’t get my castle back and have to hold her hostage in the middle of nowhere! But if we find the stars then I get my castle but no Toadstool so…. Run that by me again, will ya?”  
“Ugh! Just ignore that idiot! I don’t think I could take a world with no wishes. We need to find the rest of the Star Pieces right away!”  
“Princess, you mean you wish to travel with them? But you’re a princess!” the chancellor exclaimed. “What will people say? This is madness!”  
“I don’t care! Everything seems hopeless right now,” Toadstool sighed. “…I’m tired. I’m going to go upstairs and lie down now. Good luck Mario, Mallow, Geno, and yes even you Bowser,” Toadstool told everybody before exiting the throne room.  
“Well then, now that things are a little more reasonable here, in honor of the princess’ return I declare tomorrow to be a national holi-wait,” the chancellor paused. “Those awful things that invaded the castle the other day, do you suppose that ‘boss’ they kept mentioned was Smithy?”  
“It was,” Mario nodded. “And in Rose Town they were attacked by members of the Smithy Gang as well.”  
“Then what am I saying about national holidays? We can’t celebrate with Smithy on the loose! Mario, you must defeat him on our behalf!”  
“Believe me, we’re already on it! And on that note, it’s time to head out on the road again. Take care of the princess, chancellor!”  
“Good luck Mario and…everyone! May the stars be with you!” the chancellor called out to them as they left the throne room. Back outside the castle they had barely stepped out the door when Toadstool called out to them from above.  
“Mario!” she said as she floated down from her room on her parasol. “Please, take me with you! I promise I can help you find the Star Pieces.”  
“But how are you going to get away with this?” Mario asked. “They think you went upstairs to lie down!”  
“I could see I wasn’t going to get anywhere with the chancellor, but don’t worry. Grandma’s helping me with this so no one will ever know that I’m gone!”  
“Then it’s great to have you with us, Toadstool,” Mario said. Toadstool smiled.  
“Thank you. So! Where is the next Star Piece at, do you know?”  
“Actually we haven’t heard anything about it yet,” Geno admitted.  
“I have an idea,” Mallow spoke up. “Since we’re in the area, let’s ask my Grandpa! I bet he knows for sure where the next Star Piece is at!”  
“Great idea, Mallow!” Mario said. “Let’s head to Tadpole Pond right away! …But we’ll skip Kero Sewers, okay?”  
________________________________________  
“Man, I hate early mornings,” Bowser grumbled and yawned as they walked down the path in the predawn light. Mallow and Geno carried new gear with them while Bowser wore a new shell, purchased the night before.  
Mallow stifled a yawn himself. I agree with Bowser on this one. Getting up this early sucks!  
“You promised yesterday that if we’d stop for the night in Marrymore that we could set out early for the Star Piece in the morning,” Mario reminded him.  
“Yeah well I was lying then, okay?”  
“And I’m not lying now so just suck it up since we’re already out here.”  
The group stopped at the base of a large hill. On the hill grew strange, star-shaped flowers that glowed brightly in the dark. Smaller points of glowing light dotted the hill all over the place.  
“So, this is Star Hill?” Mario asked. “What a strange place.”  
“That’s because it’s one of the few places in the world that has a direct connection to Star Haven and the Star Road,” Geno explained as they started up the hill.  
“Really?” Toadstool asked. “What sort of a connection?”  
“When a wish is chosen to be granted it’s stored inside the Star Road. When it’s time for it to come true the Star Road transforms it into a shooting star, and it falls to earth and changes into a burst of light when it lands; that’s the moment the wish comes true. The light fades, and the star is gone, but the wish remains, of course.  
“Anyways, there are several of these locations where wishes fall, and the location of the wish maker determines where the wish will land. Star Hill is one such location, and serves the needs of western Mushroom Kingdom. Shooting Star Summit near Toadstool’s castle is another one of these places. Stardust Fields on the Beanbean Kingdom’s northern border is another as well.”  
“So, these little stars glowing all over the place are actually wishes?” Mario asked.  
“That’s right. Listen:” Geno said and gently touched one of the stars.  
“Wish I had some Cricket Jam,” Frogfucius’ voice came out of the star.  
“That’s amazing!” Toadstool said.  
“But if wishes don’t fall until they’re being granted, then what are all these stars, and why didn’t they vanish?” Mario asked.  
“When the Star Road was destroyed, I believe it accidentally released all the wishes it was waiting to grant. After all, we don’t usually grant wishes the instant they’re approved.”  
“Why the heck not? Are you guys just lazy about it or something?” Bowser asked. Geno shook his head.  
“Actually we try to grant wishes as naturally as possible.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Say, for instance, you wished for some shroom cake, or maybe shaved ice. Now imagine how you’d react if suddenly it appeared right before you. You’d be confused, and probably scared as well. Maybe now you wouldn’t even want to have the shroom cake. Instead, we take a natural approach. Perhaps your friend decides to bake a shroom cake for you as a gift, or you have to travel somewhere and there’s a stall selling the shaved ice you wanted to try. That’s how we grant the majority of wishes made,” Geno explained.  
“Pretty fitting that the Star Piece landed here, then,” Mario said as he listened to another wish.  
“I vant to be a vald class baker,” Chef Torte’s voice came out of the star. Everybody laughed and started trying other stars that they found.  
“I can’t wait to start a family with Raini,” Raz wished.  
“I hope my future children are cute!” Raini wished.  
“I wish I could run faster,” was what Yoshi wished.  
“I wish I wasn’t such a crybaby,” Mallow’s voice came out of the star Geno touched. Immediately Bowser cracked up laughing. Mario laughed a little, and even Toadstool started giggling.  
“You…! Who do you think you are, spying on other people’s wishes?!” Mallow yelled at them. Thunder started cracking very close by. “Wishes are supposed to be private!” Mallow turned and ran off. The nerve of them! They wouldn’t like it if I laughed at their wishes! After he ran a short distance away he sat down in front of a star, accidentally bumping it as he did.  
“Please let Mallow find his way home,” said the voice of two people from that wish. Mallow gasped, then slowly clenched his hands into fists; dark storm clouds rapidly gathered overhead.  
“Mallow?” Geno asked as he walked up to Mallow by himself.  
“Go away,” Mallow snapped.  
“What-”  
“You stars are so concerned about granting dumb wishes like cake that you ignore all the important ones!” Mallow yelled and hit the ground angrily. “This is the wish of my parents and you never granted it! You kept me from my real family almost my whole life and now the Star Road’s busted and this wish can’t even come true anymore! You didn’t care that they wanted me back!” Mallow buried his face in his hands and willed himself not to cry.  
“Mallow,” Geno said gently as he sat next to Mallow. “You weren’t paying much attention to what I said earlier, were you?” No answer. “Mallow, we grant wishes as naturally as possible. I don’t doubt that when your parents made this wish we agreed at once to grant it. But that doesn’t mean the Star Spirits could’ve just picked up the Star Rod and teleported you back into your parent’s arms. Imagine how frightened they would’ve been if that had happened. They might not have even believed you to be you, but the result of an evil spell to trick them.”  
“So? You never put it in their head to go look at Tadpole Pond, either!”  
“…No, I suppose not. Perhaps it’s taken a long time because you were needed elsewhere.”  
“Where else could be more important than home, my real home?!”  
“With us, traveling to search for the Star Pieces. Fate is something poorly understood even by us stars,” Geno said. “Perhaps you needed to stay at Tadpole Pond so that you would meet Mario as soon as possible after the sword fell, to help defeat Bowyer, and the Mack monster you told me about. And help rescue Dyna, and Princess Toadstool, and whatever else lies ahead.”  
“I’m not that important,” Mallow mumbled. “Why does Mario need me around now that he has all of you?”  
“Because only you can use lightning, or read the minds of anyone. Mallow, you’ve gained so much confidence in yourself these past few days. I’m sure Mario has noticed that as well. Please don’t let your newfound confidence leave you now.”  
“What’s the point in having any confidence when everyone laughs at my private wish? I’ve been trying really hard not to cry all the time and you still laughed anyways.”  
“I didn’t laugh,” Geno said. “And believe me; they wouldn’t laugh either if I revealed their wishes. As a star I do understand that wishes are very personal, private things. Something I think they understand now too, and are certainly sorry for laughing at your wish. Perhaps I shouldn’t have revealed how to listen to these ungranted wishes. I am sorry at what it caused.”  
“…I wish…I want…I want my parent’s wish to come true so badly,” Mallow looked down. “All my life I’ve lived with Grandpa missing them and wanting them to come back for me and now, what if it can’t come true?”  
“It wouldn’t be here on Star Hill if that was the case,” Geno reminded him. “It may take a lot more searching once the Star Road is repaired, but it will come true.”  
“Promise?” Mallow asked, looking up at Geno.  
“Promise,” Geno said and smiled. Mallow managed to smile back, and the dark clouds overhead parted to reveal a rapidly brightening sky. Mallow and Geno stood up and Mario, Toadstool, and Bowser walked over to them.  
“Listen Mallow,” Mario said “I’m really sorry I laughed at your wish.”  
“It was so wrong of me. I’m so sorry; please forgive us,” Toadstool said.  
“Yeah, I’m supposed to say I’m sorry or something,” Bowser mumbled.  
“I’m sorry I got so angry,” Mallow said. “I’m just really embarrassed about my wish.”  
“You had every right to be angry at us,” Toadstool told him. “So, are you ready to start looking for the Star Piece again?”  
“Yes, let’s keep searching-ah…look there!” Geno pointed to the top of Star Hill, where a purple Star Piece sat upon the crest.  
The group raced to the top of the hill. As soon as they got near the Star Piece started circling around them just as the others had done. The Star Piece landed in Mario’s hands just as the sun rose over the horizon, bathing them and the top of the hill in gold. Past the other side of Star Hill Mallow could see a town next to the sea.  
“Seaside Town!” Toadstool exclaimed. “Let’s go to Seaside Town, they have so many shops there, and we can even have a picnic by the sea! Please, Mario?”  
“I’ve always wanted to go to Seaside Town,” Mallow said.  
“Well, I suppose it can’t hurt. Maybe somebody there knows where the next Star Piece is,” Mario said as they started down the hill and towards Seaside Town.


	6. Sunken Treasure

“That’s weird,” Geno said as they entered Seaside Town. “For a place famous as a shopping destination it’s awfully deserted.”  
“Maybe people are traveling less right now because of the Smithy Gang,” Mallow suggested. Mario shrugged.  
“Yeah, maybe. Let’s check out that gear shop over there, maybe they have something good to buy,” Mario led them over to the aforementioned shop. Inside were the two weirdest toads Mallow had ever seen. The spots on their caps were steel grey and their skin was blue.  
“This…shop…be here…buy…stuff and things…good,” the weird toad on the left said.  
“Shop…this…sell-buy…fun…here…yes,” the one on the right said.  
“I…er…we’re all good on that, thanks,” Mario said and the group quickly walked out.  
“There is definitely something wrong with this town,” Geno said. “Smithy must have taken it over.”  
“Why?” Bowser asked. “Seems normal to me.”  
“Let’s not jump to the worst case scenario,” Mario said. “Maybe they’re just, you know, sick. Hey, look, a mushroom shop. How about we get some breakfast mushrooms and save what we have as travel rations?” Mario suggested as he opened the door to the mushroom shop. Mallow got a quick glimpse of the same type of odd-looking toad inside staring and drooling at the mushroom signs hanging from the wall before Mario slammed the door shut.  
“Okay, it’s definitely the worst case-”  
“It’s about time!” someone yelled nearby. Mallow turned and saw that it was yet another weird toad, but an old one this time. The odd old toad walked over to them and pointed directly at Mario. “You! I am the town elder so listen up! I reached the position of elder by pleasing my superiors, you know!  
“There’s a star in the ocean. I can’t fetch it myself due to certain…circumstances, so go get it for me! You can probably find it in Johnathan Jones’ Sunken Ship. Now, hurry up and go already!”  
“Uh, we’ll think about it,” Mario said and led the group to the far side of Seaside Town until they reached the sea.”  
“So, Smithy has taken over this town as well. If the Star Piece really is in the ocean then that’s good news for us,” Geno said as they walked alongside the shore.  
“How can there be good news out of this?” Mallow asked.  
“Remember how Mack, Bowyer, the aeros, and the shysters were all made out of metal?” Mario said.  
“Yeah, so?”  
“Metal rusts in water,” Mario explained. “The ‘elder’ can’t go fetch the Star Piece himself because he’ll rust and become damaged, so this Star Piece has been safe from Smithy’s grasp.”  
“But now that he knows that we know where the Star Piece is he’ll be waiting for us to come back,” Toadstool said. “And we have to come back to save the real citizens.”  
“We’ll come back after dark,” Geno said. “And when we do we’ll sneak into the shops one by one and take out all the fake toads, then confront the ‘elder’. We’ll keep the Star Piece and save the town!”  
“You’re forgetting one thing,” Bowser said. “There are no boats around here; we have no way to go out to the Star Piece in the first place!”  
“Your shell floats, right? You can be the boat,” Mario said.  
“It doesn’t, and even if it did it wouldn’t after all of you sit on it anyways!”  
Mallow ignored the arguing and walked out ahead of the group. The sound of the waves is so relaxing after getting so angry earlier. Mallow took a deep breath of salt air and sighed. But how are we going to get out to the Sunken Ship? There’s gotta be a way…. Mallow looked around. There was a nearby bush that looked weird at the base. Mallow walked over to take a closer look and found it was a sizable hole, and there was a ladder in it.  
“Hey, check this out!” Mallow called them over. “Maybe there’s a boat down there.”  
“Nice work, Mallow,” Mario said. “Let’s see what’s down there.” One by one the group went down the ladder. It turned out to be a mine, but abandoned.  
“Looks like the tunnel leads out to sea,” Geno said. “This might be better than a boat, if it reaches the Sunken Ship.”  
“There’s a man,” Toadstool said, and sure enough there was shaman sitting behind some lined up crates.  
“Excuse me, but, what are you doing down here?” Mario asked.  
“Just minding my own business…and doing a little of my own. Interested in a new wardrobe?” the shaman asked and laid out clothes on his makeshift counter.  
“You bet!” Mario said. After the shaman had been paid and everyone, sans Bowser, changed into their new clothes he spoke to them again.  
“Since you shopped here I’ll share something with you. The pirate ship sank because a giant squid attacked it. Follow these mines and you’ll come up near the ship. However everyone who has ever gone out to the Sunken Ship never came back. Well, good luck!”  
“Pirates?” Toadstool whispered as they walked down the tunnel. “Nobody said anything about pirates!”  
“You never heard of Johnny Jones?” Mallow asked. “Grandpa used to tell me stories about how Johnny Jones was the fiercest pirate of our time until his ship sunk.”  
“That’s hardly anything the chancellor would find appropriate to tell me.”  
“Don’t worry Toadstool. No pirate can stop us when wishes are on the line,” Mario said.  
“I’m much scarier than any pirate,” Bowser laughed. “They don’t stand a chance against me!”  
“The pirates would disagree if they saw the way he cried at Booster Tower,” Geno whispered to Mallow. Both of them giggled.  
Up ahead the tunnel came to an abrupt end. Sunlight poured down from above, and another ladder rested against the wall.  
“Well, I guess this is as far as we can go,” Mario said. “Might as well go up and see how close we are to the Sunken Ship.”  
“But what if the shaman lied and we’re still really far away from the Sunken Ship?” Toadstool asked as they climbed up the ladder.  
“We’ll figure something out. If nothing else we’re closer than we were back on dry land, right?”  
At the top of the ladder they found themselves perched atop a large rock out in the ocean. Not even twenty yards away part of a broken ship mast poked up above the water.  
“How fortunate that it sank in shallow water!” Geno said. “We don’t have to dive down very far to get in.”  
“But, how will we breathe in there?” Toadstool asked.  
“If Johnny Jones still lives down there then there must be pockets of air to breathe from,” Mario reassured her.  
“Man, today just sucks,” Bowser grumbled. “First I had to get up before sunrise, and now I have to get water in my shell! I hate having water in my shell!”  
“Well, I mean, we could stop right here right now,” Geno said. “But then you’ll have to live in a tent somewhere, unless Booster is looking for a roommate.”  
“Oughta rip your stuffing out…,” Bowser mumbled but didn’t complain when they all jumped into the water. Together they swam out to the broken ship mast. The door to the ship’s interior lay below them.  
“We’ll dive together, and when I open the door, everybody swim inside really quick,” Mario said. “If there’s no air pockets then we’ll come back here to the surface and think of something else. Ready? Go!”  
Mallow took a deep breath and dove underwater. Kicking his legs hard to resist floating back up again he swam down to the door. Once everyone had gathered at the door Mario opened it and they quickly got inside. It turned out this part of the interior wasn’t flooded, aside from the water that came in with them.  
“Thank the stars it’s dry in here,” Toadstool said. “It’ll be so much easier to find the Star Piece this way.”  
“Hey,” Geno said as he picked up a few pieces of paper laying on a nearby crate. “This looks like part of the ship log. Shall I read it?”  
“Sure, go ahead,” Mario said.  
“‘We’re done for. A giant squid got a hold of us. The ship is going down fast. We’ve managed to trap the giant squid in the treasure cellar. The treasure will sink with the ship, but so it goes.’ ‘The door to the cellar is locked with a password consisting of six letters. Six hints are hidden on the ship. Of course, since they’re provided by different people, it’ll be practically impossible to solve.’”  
“I hate these brain games!” Bowser said. “Let’s just bust down the door!”  
“If it’s a spell like the one Booster had in his tower, the door will be impossible to break open,” Geno said. “That’s probably how they trapped the squid with the treasure.”  
The group walked into the next room. Inside greapers swooped down at them while dry bones materialized out of piles of bones on the floor. Mario flung large fireballs at the dry bones while Mallow quickly dispatched the greapers using thunderbolt. The greapers dissolved into air while the dry bones collapsed back into piles of bones.  
“Come on, before they get up again,” Mario said. Quickly the group hurried across the room and down a flight of stairs. At the bottom they found themselves inside a short hallway with three doors on both sides and another at the far end.  
“Six doors, six hints. Let’s start with this one on the right,” Geno said and opened the first door on the right. Inside a lone sky troopa was flying around with a piece of paper taped to his shell.  
“Gotcha!” Mario said as he leapt up and grabbed the paper. “‘There is an “s” in the word,’” Mario read aloud. “Pretty vague but this is the first hint.”  
Across the hall and in the first room on the left there were three switches before them. On a ledge three trampolines moved around and a switch lay high on the wall above them.  
“Something must bounce on the trampolines when they all stop. Let’s see, here, here, and I think here,” Geno said and pressed the switches. When the last one stopped a cannonball came down and started bouncing across them, but fell short of the switch on the wall. The trampolines started moving again.  
“Ah…I’ll try again,” Geno pressed the switches again and this time the cannonball hit the switch on the wall. A piece of paper fluttered down from the ceiling. “‘It is found on the bed of the ocean,’” Geno read to them.  
Back in the hallway and into the second room on the right there was a tall maze made of crates spread around the floor. Mario tried jumping onto the crates but fell short.  
“Dang, we’ll just have to do it the hard way. We’d better split up in there to try to find it faster,” Mario said. Inside Mallow wandered around by himself for what seemed like ages until at the end of a dead end was another piece of paper taped to the crates.  
“Yes! I found it!” Mallow called out. Once they’d all finally made it back to the entrance of the maze Mallow read everyone the hint. “‘It has two vowels.’ That’s all it says.”  
In the second room on the left there were many barrels sitting around the room, but otherwise it was empty.  
“So, I guess we should look inside these barrels?” Toadstool asked.  
“I guess that’s all we have to do,” Mario said and started looking inside barrels. The others started looking as well, but all Mallow found in his barrels was just a lot of dust.  
“Hah! I found the hint and a crapload of Coins!” Bowser said. “Says that ‘It has four consonants.’ Dumb brain games.”  
In the last room on the right there was a lone cannon firing cannonballs and a switch high in the air. Mario tried jumping up to it but again fell short.  
“Hmmm, how can we reach it? …Wait, got it!” Mario said and waited until a cannonball was almost directly underneath the switch. Mario jumped and propelled the cannonball up into the switch. Another piece of paper fell from the ceiling. “Here we go. ‘At least two consonants are side by side.’”  
In the last room on the left there were simply two switches on the ground. Mario stood on one while Toadstool stood on the other, and the last hint fell before them.  
“Let’s see…,” Toadstool picked up the piece of paper and started reading. “‘The “r” comes before the “l”.’”  
As they filed into the room at the end of the hall Mario passed out mushrooms and maple syrups to everyone.  
“Here, let’s have lunch while we try to figure out the password,” he said. The room was empty except for the piece of paper taped onto the far door. “It says here,” Mario said between bites of mushroom. “That we get one last hint: ‘The password is something found in the sea.’”  
“But there’s so many things in the sea,” Mallow said. “Seaweed, monsters, treasure, pearls-” When Mallow said “pearls” the lock clicked and the door opened.  
“Mallow you did it! That was the password!” Toadstool exclaimed.  
“-Sharks, pirates-huh? Oh!” Mallow said and blushed.  
“Man, what was the point of getting those dumb hints when he just blurted it out like that?” Bowser asked. “Whatever. Let’s plunder some treasure!”  
The inside of the treasure cellar was dark; Mallow could barely ahead. He thought maybe there were Coins piled around the walls, but he didn’t see anything star shaped, or the squid either.  
“Thank you for holding my hand, Mario,” Toadstool said. “I was afraid I’d trip in here.”  
“Uh, I’m not holding you hand,” Mario said.  
“What do you-eek! It’s got me!” Toadstool started slapping something that had a hold of her wrist. Mallow could see that it was a massive tentacle. The tentacle let go and retreated slightly, but seven more burst out of the floor. And up ahead the head of a massive squid appeared.  
“Good job with the password,” the squid spoke. “I’ll let you through…if you can beat me, King Calamari!” the squid laughed and started swinging his tentacles around. Geno fired a disc of light at the tentacles while Mallow charged and quickly unleashed thunderbolt on the tentacles. Mario shot large fireballs at the tentacles, causing King Calamari to squeal and withdraw them, allowing them to draw closer to the head of the squid.  
Geno flipped open his wrist to use hand gun, the upgraded version of finger shot, and shot bullets at King Calamari, then fired Geno Whirl at him again. Mario was about to use the masher on him when Bowser picked him up and chucked him into King Calamari.  
“Ow! Hey! What happened to your chain chomp?”  
“I decided you make a better weapon!” Bowser laughed and chucked Mario again. Toadstool started slapping King Calamari.  
This is a big bad guy, I’d better use extra power, Mallow thought as he started charging up. “This is my treasure!” flowed into his mind. But when Mallow unleashed his attack instead of smaller lightning bolts striking in the target range, a single large lightning came down and struck King Calamari with a large crack! W-wow! Since when have I been able to do that?!  
Mario leapt up after being tossed by Bowser again and started jumping on King Calamari’s head. King Calamari squealed and retreated back down into the depths.  
“Yeah, take that, you giant sushi!” Bowser said.  
“Wait, let me heal everyone before we continue on,” Toadstool said and held her arms wide, healing the group.  
“Cool new attack!” Mallow told Geno as they were being healed.  
“Same to you! I’d say King Calamari found it to be quite shocking!” Geno said and smiled to Mallow. Mallow grinned back.  
In the next room alley rats were using cannons to launch bullet bills all over the place. Mallow quickly charged and used thunderbolt on the alley rats, stunning them and briefly halting the onslaught of bullet bills. Geno started firing his hand shot bullets at the alley rats while Mario used the masher on another. Toadstool slapped the last one several times. With all of them knocked out they were able to cross the room and head down a flight of stairs.  
In the next corridor a couple of dry bones formed from pone piles. Bowser grabbed Mario and chucked into the dry bones, causing them to collapse into piles again. Mario winced and glared at Bowser as he got up, but didn’t say anything as they went into the next room.  
Inside a group of alley rats were dancing around until they saw the group walk in. The alley rats charged at them, and Mario started smacking them around with his masher. The alley rats turned and fled. Down another flight of stairs they went, and into the new room at the bottom. This room, it turned out, was partially flooded.  
“I don’t see a door on the other side,” Mario noted. “Looks like we’ll have to dive down again.”  
“Do you think we’ll have to swim far?” Mallow asked.  
“I have no idea. Once we dive down we’ll just have to swim as fast as we can and look for air pockets.”  
The group jumped into the water and swam to the far side of the room. Once they were there they took a deep breath and dove down into the water. Together they swam along another hallway, down yet another flight of stairs, and into a large room. In the new room they swam to the top and found, like the other one, it was only partially flooded.  
“I’m sick of swimming!” Bowser said as they swam to the other side of the room. “This better be the last swimming we do today!”  
“We still have to swim out of here you know,” Mario said. “But if you’ve really had enough you can stay here, it’s a pretty big ship, and maybe Johnny is looking for a new swabbie.”  
“Shut up,” Bowser grumbled as they climbed out of the water and into the next room. Inside a group of four sharks wearing red bandanas and carrying spears were sitting on the floor together, drinking out of flasks. As soon as the group entered the room the pirates dropped their flasks and stood up with their spears.  
“Arr, what’s goin’ on?! Who’re you?!”  
“Adventurers,” Mario said. “And we’re looking for something important called a Star Piece.”  
“Stars?” The bandana reds laughed. “We’ll show ya some stars!”  
“Yer outta luck anyways,” another bandana red spoke. “Whatever winds up in the sea becomes Johnny’s property!”  
“Including dumb adventurers!” The bandana reds laughed again and charged with their spears. Mario smacked one on the head using his masher while Bowser picked up one bandana red and threw him into another. The last one smacked Mallow with his spear. Mallow retaliated with several punches and Geno shot it using hand shot. The bandana reds backed away from the group.  
“Crap, they’re stronger than they look!” one of the bandana reds said. “Better warn the upper deck!”  
The bandana reds ran up a flight of stairs, Mario and the others close behind. Halfway up the stairs a new group of bandana reds ran by them.  
“Alright, where are the intruders?!” one of the new bandana reds said and looked around before spotting the group on the stairs. “There they are! Let’s get ‘em!”  
“Here!” a couple of bandana reds holding a barrel called from the top of the stairs. “This one’s on us!” they said and tossed the barrel down the stairs. The group stood to the side and the barrel rolled past them and into the bandana reds coming back up the stairs, knocking them all out.  
“What the-?! How dare you dodge the barrel!” the bandana reds at the top of the stairs growled and retreated back. The group climbed to the top of the stairs and saw the two bandana reds picking up a new barrel.  
“Hey!” the other bandana red said as they dropped the barrel. “How dare you get up here so fast! Well, tough luck because-hey!” Bowser picked him up and tossed him into the other bandana red, knocking both of them down the stairs.  
“Everybody ready?” Mario asked the group.  
“You bet,” Geno nodded.  
“I’m ready, too!” Mallow clenched his fists.  
“It’s me they better be ready for!” Bowser said and laughed.  
“Yes, let’s take them on,” Toadstool said. Together they walked into the next room. Here the pirates wore blue bandanas. A blue Star Piece, similar to the color of the sea, laid next to a chair the largest pirate Mallow had seen yet was sitting in.  
“So, this is the Mario, eh? Arr harr harr! Not much to look at,” Johnny said as he sipped some red wine.  
“We’re here for the Star Piece there,” Mario said. “We’re not looking for trouble.”  
“Tough luck! This, Star Piece you say? It fell into my sea, so it’s mine! Just like how you five are now my prisoners!” Johnny drained the glass of wine, stood up, and grabbed a large trident. “You lot, take care of Mario’s friends. I’ll deal with Mario myself!”  
“Heh, I got the little cloud baby over here!” one of the bandana blues called out to his crewmates as he walked up to Mallow.  
“You wish I was a baby!” Mallow said as he punched the bandana blue. Wait, cloud baby? The bandana blue smacked Mallow with his spear. Mallow punched the bandana blue again, who whacked Mallow harder with his spear.  
Mallow backed up slightly and started charging power. “This kid’ll be a piece of cake!” flowed into Mallow’s mind as he charged. The bandana blue started jabbing at Mallow when shocker struck him with a mighty crack.  
“Ouch! Why you little…!” the bandana blue threw his spear at Mallow, who couldn’t quite dodge in time and got hit in the cheek.  
“Is that all you got?!” Mallow yelled and tackled the bandana blue to the ground.  
“Enough!” Johnny shouted just as Mallow punched the bandana blue in the nose. Mallow looked over and saw Johnny collapsed on the ground, Mario standing over him. Toadstool stopped mid-scuffle, but Geno and Bowser looked like they’d already defeated their bandana blues.  
“I’m impressed, matey,” Johnny said as he slowly got to his feet. “Go ahead, you can take the star. You’ve earned it. Think of it as a souvenir of our fight!”  
As Johnny finished speaking the Star Piece floated up and began circling around them, healing everyone, before at last falling into Mario’s hands.  
“Use the cannon in the next room to get back to shore. It’s safe; we use it all the time. Now, get out of here before I change my mind!” Johnny told them.  
The bandana blue that fought Mallow accompanied them into the next room. Inside there was a large cannon big enough for even Bowser to fit in. One by one everybody got in the cannon and was blasted out of the ship. When only Mallow was left the bandana blue stopped him.  
“Wait a moment. I have to say I was wrong; you’re much tougher than you look! I hope you find lots of treasure on your adventure!” Mallow nodded.  
“Good luck with the whole pirate thing!” Mallow said as he climbed into the cannon. The bandana blue fired the cannon and Mallow burst out of the water, flew over the sea, and landed with the rest of the group by Seaside Town’s sign.  
“We did it!” Mallow said as he got to his feet. “We’ve got five Star Pieces!”  
“Now that that’s over with why don’t we-” Mario stopped and turned. Mallow and the others looked as well. The ‘elder’ from before was standing there with the rest of the odd toads. Oh no! He caught us!  
“Eee hee hee! Well done on finding the Star Piece!” the fake elder said and glanced over his shoulder. “But your journey ends here. You’re so gullible; I am Yaridovich, loyal member of the Smithy Gang. My impersonation as one of your ordinary people was completely flawless!” Yaridovich glanced over his shoulder again.  
“Actually, your impersonation was-”  
“You know, your search for these Star Pieces has Smithy worried. But when I bring this one back to him, I’ll earn major brownie points! This is the way to get ahead! Now…hand over the Star Piece.”  
“No way!” Mario said, holding the masher. Mallow clenched his fists, Geno flipped open his wrist, Bowser cracked his knuckles, and Toadstool crossed her arms. Yaridovich nodded to one of the fake toads, who walked over to a shed close by.  
“Hand over the Star Piece…or the real elder will get it!”  
“I said-”  
“Can we talk it over for a moment? Thanks,” Geno quickly said and pulled everyone into a huddle. “I have an idea,” he whispered. “We’re going to give him the Star Piece.”  
“You can’t be serious!” Mario whispered, horrified.  
“Did you notice the way he keeps looking over his shoulder? He’s going to try to escape to the other side of town.”  
“So what?” Bowser said.  
“So, the only thing over there is the sea; there is no way to escape that way! And he sent us to get the Star Piece because he doesn’t want to rust.”  
“I get it,” Mallow whispered. “We’ll follow him and when he can’t get any farther, we’ll attack!”  
“Right! And the real elder won’t get hurt!”  
“Great idea, let’s do it!” Mario whispered before turning back to Yaridovich and the fake toads. “We give up. Here’s the Star Piece,” Mario said and handed it to them.  
“Eee hee hee! And to think I got it without having to rust one bit!” Yaridovich said as he grabbed the Star Piece. “I’m such a genius, it scares me sometimes. Now if you’ll excuse us, our ride should be here by now!” Yaridovich said and led the rest of the fake toads to the far side of Seaside Town, closely but quietly followed by Mario at the others.  
“Blade’s late,” Yaridovich muttered when they reached the shoreline. “What’s taking so long? We need to get out of here before-”  
“Give back the Star Piece!” Mario yelled as the group blocked Yaridovich’s path back into Seaside Town.  
“Crap! I hate to say it, but, we’ll have to swim for it. Come on!” But before Yaridovich could take one step forward Johnny and the bandana blues leapt out of the sea.  
“Not so fast! That Star Piece is a gift to me mate, Mario. We’ll make you spineless dogs walk the plank!” Johnny snarled as he pointed his trident at Yaridovich.  
“Johnny, let’s give Mario and his friends the pleasure at stopping this landlubber,” one of the bandana blue’s said.  
“Arr, it’s all you, Mario!”  
“Eee hee! Time to take off our diguises. Group formation!”  
Yaridovich and the rest of the fake toads gathered together. The rest of the fake toads merged into the form of the fake elder. The fake elder started flashing and rapidly reshaped itself into Yaridovich’s true spear form.  
“Have some of this!” Yaridovich said as he started smacking around Mallow, Geno, and Toadstool with his very long spear. Bowser tossed Mario into Yaridovich, and Mario started jumping on Yaridovich’s head.  
Geno took this opportunity to fire Geno Whirl at Yaridovich while Toadstool and Mallow started slapping and punching Yaridovich respectively.  
“Hee hee, you think you have strong magic? How about I show you a real magic attack?” Yaridovich said and held out his hand. An orb of water formed in his hand and Yaridovich threw it at the group. When it hit the ground it exploded violently, injuring everyone.  
“Here!” Toadstool said and quickly healed everyone. Geno started shooting at Yaridovich while Mario shot large fireballs, setting his cape on fire. While Yaridovich was putting out the fire Mallow took the opportunity to start punching him again.  
“That was custom made, you know!” Yaridovich swung his spear into Mario and Mallow, knocking them back. “I have to give you credit, Smithy has good reason for being worried. I’ll have to use my best move on you!” Yaridovich laughed and started glowing again, then split into two identical forms. “Try and handle our double trouble, if you can!” both Yaridovichs said and started swinging their spears around.  
“I’ve got this, you guys!” Mallow yelled and started charging up large amounts of energy. He focused his energy at the one on the left, but nothing came into Mallow’s mind. Mallow then focused his energy to the one on the right. “They’ll never figure out it’s me!” flowed into his mind.  
“This one!” Mallow yelled and used shocker on the right Yaridovich. Yaridovich was bombared with fireballs, bullets, and Bowser even threw the other Yaridovich into him. The fake Yaridovich vanished.  
“How did you figure out I was the real McCoy?! No matter, I can still win!” Yaridovich said and formed another orb of explosive water in his hand again. But before he could throw it Geno hit it with Geno Whirl, and Yaridovich took the full brunt of the explosion.  
“Nooo! My promotion!” Yaridovich screamed and like Mack, like Bowyer, exploded, leaving behind the Star Piece and a key.  
“There we go!” Mario said as he caught the Star Piece a second time and picked up the key. “But, where did Johnny go?” Mario asked as he realized the pirates had gone.  
“There’s a note,” Geno said as he noticed a piece of paper stuck to one of the nearby trees. Mario picked up the note and read it aloud.  
“‘To Mario, knowing you and your mates, it must’ve been a breeze takin’ care of Yarid, eh? By the way, we saw a huge ax flyin’ across the sky. It must be one of Smithy’s nasty friends, so go get him, mate! My gills are failing on me, so we’ll be headin’ back down. You all can drop in anytime you want, okay? Your true mate, Johnathan “Johnny” Jones.’”  
“You know, I don’t think he’s such a bad guy,” Toadstool said as they walked back into Seaside Town. “For a pirate, anyways.”  
“Yeah, how about we all go back for a visit once this is all over?” Mario suggested. When they reached the shed Mario unlocked it and opened it up. Inside were all the real citizens of Seaside Town.  
“Phew, thanks so much! I’ve had enough of this cramped, dirty old shed,” a toad woman told them as she walked out.  
“Hey there, you got us out of a huge bind! Peace, brothers and sister!” a toad man said as he left.  
“It was mighty unpleasant in here! Thanks for helpin’ us out,” a mole woman told them.  
“Come on by our health food store some time,” a mole man said. He and his wife walked out together.  
“I run a beetle emporium! Come see me if you ever want an insect pal!” a snifit told the group.  
“Thank you so much for freeing us,” an old toad woman said. “I’ve got to get back to the inn now. Hope to see you there!” she said as she walked out.  
“Thank you for saving our little town of Seaside,” the real elder told the group. “You exposed the fake citizens and even gave up your star to save us. Before you go to the inn please come with me to my house so you can tell me your story.”  
“It’ll be our pleasure,” Mario said. At the elder’s house everybody sat around the table (Bowser had to sit on the floor) while Mario told the elder all about their search for the Star Pieces.  
“Mario, if it’s a star you’re looking for, I may be able to help you,” the elder said once Mario had finished. “A mouse passed through here the other day, just before we got captured. He was bragging about a star they have in Monstro Town, somewhere in the far side of Land’s End.   
“Monstro Town is populated by reformed monsters, but it’s supposed to be hard to reach. The mouse said something or other about finding an ant in a sand whirl in the desert to get there. If you want to go there then tomorrow morning I’ll take you out to the edge of Land’s End.”  
“It would be appreciated. We’ll see you in the morning,” Mario said and led the group out of the elder’s house.  
“When you say tomorrow morning, you better mean after sunrise this time!” Bowser said as they walked to the inn together.


	7. A Royal Reunion

“Well, this is about as far as I can go, but I think you can find your way from here,” the elder said to Mario. He had taken them to a rugged path north of Seaside Town. On the left steep cliffs dropped down to the ocean below, but the land sloped down gently to the right.  
“Thanks again for telling us about Monstro Town,” Mario told the elder.  
“It was the least I can after you saved our town. Good luck finding the Star Piece!” he said as he started back down to Seaside Town. Mario led the rest of the group up the path. It was a beautiful, nearly cloudless day, save for one directly to the north.  
“You know, I didn’t even know there was a settlement in Land’s End,” Mallow said while holding his new weapon, a staff called the ribbit stick. “I didn’t even know anyone travelled out this way at all.”  
“It is very remote,” Toadstool agreed. “I hope Monstro Town isn’t too hard to find.”  
“Well, at least we don’t have to swim this time, right?” Geno said.  
“Darn right!” Bowser said. “I’ve had enough swimming to last a lifetime!”  
“That explains a lot,” Mallow whispered to Geno and they both stifled giggles. Up ahead a couple of patrolling chows charged at the group when they saw them. Mario kicked his new troopa shell into one while Geno fired his new double rocket punch into the other. Both chows fled from them.  
Farther up the road a large group of geckits wandered around, attacking anything that seemed to move, including each other. As the group approached the geckits started spitting large bubbles in their general direction. Mallow whacked one with the ribbit stick and Toadstool smacked another with her new parasol. Bowser grabbed one and flung it into the midst of the other geckits while Mario jumped on the last one. With all of the geckits knocked out they continued up the path.  
Farther along the land became less rugged, and proper trees were growing again. Tall cliffs rose abruptly to the north and the path turned east, sloping downward as it did. Three more chows charged at the group. Mallow quickly charged and unleashed thunderbolt on them, stunning them long enough for Mario to jump on one while Toadstool hit the other with her parasol. Mallow whacked the last one with the ribbit stick.  
Just up ahead the cliff changed direction and started running to the north now. Also directly north of them was chasm that blocked the way farther north…or would have if not for the bridge spanning it.  
“So, people do travel this way,” Geno noted as they crossed the bridge. “Is there something out here besides Monstro Town?”  
“I wouldn’t mind a casino here if you ask me!” Bowser said. “That’s way better than some boring old town!”  
The landscape changed again, and almost all the previous vegetation vanished. A sandy desert sprawled out before them, bordered by the cliffs on the west as well as the north.  
“Aw man, I hate sand!” Bowser yelled. “Sand in my shell is worse than water!” The rest of the group turned and glared at Bowser. “Ugh, fine! Come on; let’s find this stupid sand-ant-whirl the elder talked about.”  
“‘Watch for the ant in the sand whirl’ I believe is what he said,” Geno said.  
“There’s a sand whirl right here,” Mallow said and walked up to it. When he got close a large ant in samurai armor jumped out of the sand. The shogun slashed at Mallow with his ax before jumping back down into the sand, glaring up at them.  
“Oh dear, how can we get near the sand whirls if they behave so aggressively?” Toadstool asked.  
“We can’t attack them when they’re in the sand either,” Geno said after firing Geno Whirl at the shogun, to no effect.  
“There’s gotta be a way past them,” Mario said. “Maybe there’s one that lets you by, or something.”  
Slowly the group made their way north across the desert, but couldn’t find a single shogun that wasn’t aggressive. Eventually they reached the northern cliffs. The remains of a rope ladder rested at the foot of the cliff.  
“That’s weird,” Mario said as they looked at the rope ladder. “There must be something up there, if this was hanging from the cliff at one point.  
“This damage is fresh,” Geno said as he examined the rope. “And it looks cut by a knife or some other weapon, instead of natural wear and tear. Whatever is up there, somebody wants to keep everybody else out.”  
“You don’t think its Monstro Town, do you?” Toadstool asked. “Maybe the elder misunderstood the mouse, and he meant past the sand whirls and ants is the way to Monstro Town.”  
“Let’s try the sand whirls again,” Mario said. “Maybe we missed one somewhere.”  
“That’s a good idea, let’s-whoa!” Mallow wasn’t paying attention where he was walking and stepped into a sand whirl. But rather than be attacked by a shogun he sank down right into it and down into a cave!  
“Mallow! Are you okay?!” Mallow heard Mario yell from above.  
“I’m fine, there’s a cave down here!” Mallow called back. Moments later Geno fell through the sand whirl and landed next to Mallow.  
“Down here! This must be it!” Geno called back up. Toadstool, Mario, and Bowser sank through the sand whirl after them. “This must be what the mouse meant. He didn’t mean look for a sand whirl with an ant in it, he meant look for the sand whirl that doesn’t have an ant in it. The elder misheard him.”  
“Monstro Town can’t be too far away then. Let’s hurry and get that sixth Star Piece,” Mario said.  
The group set off down the cave tunnel. It was dark, but there didn’t seem to be any monsters around. Quite suddenly the natural cave ended and they found themselves in some sort of man-made underground temple. Stone heads lined the walls; Mallow recognized the four-eyed, long-tongued creature depicted at once.  
“Oh no, oh no, oh no. W-we can’t go in here!”  
“What’s wrong?” Toadstool asked.  
“Belome,” Mario said, nodding at the stone heads. “Belome was a monster we fought in Kero Sewers that tried to eat Mallow, but he vanished at the end of the fight. If this is his temple then this is probably where he went.  
“He did eat me! I was just lucky he spat me back out again. And he’ll eat me again for sure, I just know it!”  
“Mallow, I understand that this must be very frightening for you, but you’ve shown bravery in other scary situations,” Mario said. “I won’t make you go on if you’re too afraid, but please come with us. We need you in this fight against the Smithy Gang.  
“I…,” Mallow remembered what Geno said on Star Hill and took a deep breath. “O-okay. I’ll keep going.”  
“As long as we’re all together we have nothing to be afraid of,” Geno told Mallow as they started walking again. A pipe loomed out of the darkness ahead and one by one they went down it. Where they emerged was just like the same scenario as before: a long tunnel, a gate blocking the way forward, and Belome standing before them.  
“Oh, some delicious-looking snacks have arrived! Let’s see how you taste!” Belome exclaimed and wrapped his over-sized tongue around Toadstool.  
“Ew, disgusting! Let go, you monster!” Toadstool yelled and started smacking Belome with her parasol. Belome released Toadstool and smacked his lips.  
“Mmm, tastes peachy…,” Belome noted as he turned his attention to Geno. Geno fired his hands into Belome, but Belome ignored them and wrapped his tongue around Geno.  
“Unhand me this instant!” Geno shouted. Belome let him go and Geno was able to use rocket punch on him again.  
“Bitter, but not bad…,” Belome said to himself and turned to Mario. Mario kicked the troopa shell into Belome, but Belome seemed unfazed as he wrapped his tongue around Mario. Unlike the other two, Belome let go of Mario right away.  
“Ack, sour!” Belome exclaimed. Bowser started laughing and didn’t resist when Belome went to taste Bowser. Unlike the others however Belome let go and backed away the moment his tongue touched Bowser.  
“Gah, how disgusting!” Belome yelled. Mario cracked up laughing but stopped when Mallow started to beat Belome’s tongue away with the ribbit stick.  
“N-no! Stay away!” Mallow yelled. Belome grabbed the ribbit stick with his tongue and tossed it away before successfully grabbing Mallow.  
“Yes, this is delicious! This is the taste I’ve been looking for again!” Belome exclaimed. Unlike the others, however, Belome sucked Mallow right into his mouth!  
“NOOO!” Mallow screamed and struggled. This is the end! Mallow thought. My game’s over, and now I’ll never meet Mom and Dad! Mallow closed his eyes and for a split second imagined he saw them, crying at the news that he’d died. No! I can’t die! I have to find them and stop Smithy! Mallow quickly started charging up energy. “This is so delicious!” flowed into his mind and Mallow brought down shocker onto Belome, and himself.  
“Oof!” Mallow said as he suddenly made contact with the temple floor. “I’m here! I’m alive!”  
“Oh no, not again!” Belome said. “I’m starving! Time to go home for dinner!” Belome hopped into the air and vanished in a puff of smoke. The gate before them opened, but this time water didn’t come gushing through.  
“That was awful,” Toadstool said. “I’m glad Mallow’s okay, but I feel disgusting being covered in that monster’s spit!”  
“Me too!” Mallow said. “Wait, I’ve an idea!” Mallow concentrated again and used healing rain on everyone. Not only did it make everyone feel better but it washed off all of Belome’s spit.  
“Thanks, that feels much better!” Mario said. On the other side of the gate there was another pipe. “Well, here goes nothing! Mario said and went down the pipe. The rest of the group followed him and emerged outside on a ledge on the cliff overlooking the sea. A series of doors was built into the side of the cliff.  
“This must be it!” Geno said. “Let’s go get that Star Piece!” Mario knocked on the door nearest to them.  
“Come on in!” an older woman’s voice called out. Walking inside they found an old toad woman sitting there. “Oh my, we don’t get very many travelers here! Welcome to Monstro Town, where everyone is welcome! I’m the landlady, Monstermama.”  
“We came looking for a star, have you seen any?” Mario asked Monstermama.  
“You must mean our star! Just head upstairs, don’t be shy,” Monstermama told Mario.  
“Thanks a bunch!” he said as they quickly headed upstairs. Upstairs a rat funk and chest monster sat around a table. A starslap stood on top of a dresser.  
“La ti do re so do re mi!” the starslap sang and danced to her song.  
“You gotta be kidding, we came all the way out for a freaking starfish?!” Bowser exclaimed.  
“There must be some mistake, let’s ask Monstermama again,” Mario said and led everyone back downstairs.  
“So what did you think?” Monstermama asked when they came back downstairs. “She’s totally adorable, right?”  
“Actually, we’re looking for something called a Star Piece,” Mario explained. “They’re large, colorful, and fell down from the sky. Have you seen anything like that around here?”  
“Can’t say I have, no,” Monstermama said and shook her head.  
“So that’s it, we came all the way here for nothing,” Mallow said sadly.  
“It’s got to be around here somewhere. You said you saw it fall around Land’s End. We can’t give up yet,” Geno said.  
“But where can it be? We’ve already looked everywhere else,” Toadstool said.  
“I can tell that this Star Piece must be very important,” Monstermama said.  
“The fate of the world depends on it,” Mario said.  
“This is the last place to look on land. If you can’t find it here, the last place left is up!”  
“There’s somewhere else to look? How do we get there?” Mario asked.  
“There’s a secret passage to the sky at Bean Valley! But our resident mouse informed me the rope ladder leading there has recently been destroyed. Fortunately there’s another way to scale the cliff,” Monstermama told them and cleared her throat. “Sky troopas! I need you!” Monstermama shouted.  
For several seconds nothing happened, but then three sky troopas flew through the door, two with red shells, the third one with a grey shell and wearing an aviation helmet.  
“What was our flying time, troops?” the grey shelled one asked.  
“Eight point five two seconds, sergeant!” one of the red ones replied. The sergeant saluted Monstermama.  
“Sky troopas reporting for duty, ma’am! I hold myself personally accountable for being point five two seconds late!”  
“No need to bother with protocol around me, sergeant. I have a favor to ask of you; the rope ladder to Bean Valley is out and these five need to get there right away. I want you to get them up into Bean Valley, and then get started on a new ladder. Can you do it?”  
“Affirmative!” the sergeant saluted. “We will succeed! Troops, we will deploy ourselves to the cliff at once!” the sergeant said and just as fast as they had flown in they were out the door again.  
“They’re a little odd, but they’ll get you to the top of the cliff. Meet them in the northern edge of the desert near the sand whirl you came down in. Good luck in the sky!”  
“Thank you so much, Monstermama. You’ve been a huge help to us!” Mario said and led the group out the door. “But before we go, let’s hit up the item shop first and see if we can stock up on anything.”  
They walked farther along the ledge to the item shop and went inside. There was a goomba with his back turned tending to a shelf.  
“Just a moment!” he called back to them before turning around. “Oh my! King Bowser!” the goomba exclaimed when he caught sight of Bowser.  
“Goombob, what are you doing here?” Bowser asked the goomba.  
“I went AWOL because, well…I was scared to fight Smithy. I knew he’d stomp me flat in an instant so I fled here with Jagger and my family,” Goombob said. “I know I’d be useless in battle, but I can get you geared up, if you’ll forgive me.”  
“…Don’t worry. I’ve got better troops and we’re going to reclaim my castle! So, show me what you have!”  
________________________________________  
‘Ten-hut! All troops execute our plan, on the double!” The sergeant exclaimed at the base of the northern cliff. Sky troopas picked up Mario, Mallow, Geno, and Toadstool and flew them to the top of the cliff. Once they’d all been safely set down they flew back down to Bowser and working together, lifted him off the ground and up the cliff with the others.  
“Thanks for the lift, sergeant!” Mario said to the sergeant.  
“It is our duty to help civilians in need! Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to get started on making a new rope ladder right away!” The sergeant said, saluted, and flew off with the rest of the sky troopas.  
Mallow looked around; Bean Valley had many exotic flowers and plants growing all over the place. The sky was still cloudless, save for the one directly overhead. Mallow blinked and looked back up again. Wait, is that the same cloud from this morning? Come to think of it, there always does seem to be at least one cloud over Land’s End.  
“Incoming!” Mario yelled as a group of stingers angrily flew at them. Mallow charged and quickly dispatched the group with thunderbolt before anybody could get stung.  
“Looks like we’re not welcome,” Toadstool noted as a nearby fink flower attempted to slap at them. Mario kicked his troopa shell into it, knocking it out. “Even the flowers are unfriendly!”  
“These won’t be any problem, unless we run into some piranha plants.”  
“Like the ones over there?” Geno pointed to a group of pipes with piranha plants growing out of them.  
“Looks like we need to weed this garden, then!” Bowser started swinging around his new spike-studded ball and chain. He swung the spiked link into the piranha plants until the last one was defeated.  
“There’s another one!” Mallow said, pointing to another piranha plant in a pipe up ahead. Bowser swung his spiked link into it, defeating the smilax as well.  
“La dee da…! It’s shower time!” a voice sang above their heads. Mallow looked up and saw a shy away carrying a watering can. It flew down and started watering the smilax; not only did the first head grow back, but it grew a second head as well!  
“That’s not going to stop us!” Geno said and fired his hands into the smilax on the right. Mario kicked his troopa shell into the one on the left. Both smilaxes were defeated in a moment.  
“La dee da…! It’s recycled water!” Shy Away sang as he flew down and watered the smilax again. This time not one did the first two heads grow back, but a third one grew, too.  
“Still easy!” Mallow said as he charged and unleashed thunderbolt on the smilaxes, defeating two of them. Toadstool whacked the third one with her parasol and defeated it.  
“La dee da…! I added some nutrients!” Shy Away sang as he watered the smilax yet again. But this time when the smilax in the middle grew back, Shy Away kept watering it until it grew to a massive size!  
“M-Mario! What should we do?!” Toadstool yelled as megasmilax snarled and started spitting massive fireballs at the group.  
“Fight fire with fire!” Mario said and staring shooting large fireballs back at megasmilax. But megasmilax was so huge it was barely affected by it.  
“Pathetic. Watch this!” Bowser swung his spiked link into megasmilax. Megasmilax snarled and spat an oversized fireball into Bowser. “Ouch! Hey!”  
Mallow ignored the fireballs and concentrated on charging energy. “Chomp chomp!” flowed into his mind as he focused it on megasmilax and brought down shocker on it. Megasmilax cringed, but still wasn’t defeated.  
“Let me try something,” Geno said as he flipped open his arm cannon and charged up energy. But instead of shooting it at megasmilax he shot it up into the air. Geno’s energy shot rose into the sky before raining down on megasmilax as pillars of light. The two smaller smilax were defeated, and so, too, was megasmilax.  
“La dee-huh? Oh, oh, oh, I’m all out of water! Smilax’s been whacked!” Shy Away exclaimed. “Oooh, I’m going to get it! Queen Valentina told me to keep everyone out of Nimbus Land! I better get out of here,” Shy Away said and flew away, dropping his watering can and a few other things as he did.  
“Seed and fertilizer,” Geno said as he picked up the items. “What are these for?”  
“I’ll show you what do with them,” Mario led Geno over to a bare patch of dirt nearby. It looked like something had been dug up there recently. “First we plant the seed, then we fertilize it, and then water it,” Mario explained as he planted and fertilized the seed, then watered it with the last few drops of water from Shy Away’s watering can.  
After a few seconds a sprout poked out of the soil, and then rapidly grew into a giant beanstalk, reaching all the way up into the sky.  
“Yes, that’s so cool!” Mallow cheered and jumped up and down. “Let’s go and check out this Nimbus Land place!”  
“I can climb beneath Toadstool,” Bowser said. “That way I can catch her if she falls!” Everybody turned and glared at Bowser a second time.  
“Actually, Toadstool will climb last, but since you’re so enthusiastic you can go first. I’ll go second, then Geno, then Mallow.  
Bowser grumbled and one by one they started climbing up the beanstalk. Queen Valentina and Nimbus Land, Mallow thought as he climbed. There’s almost something familiar about this. I wonder why.  
Up and up they climbed until at last they reached the cloud in the sky. Once they were on solid cloud Mallow looked around. Most of the buildings seemed to be made out of beanstalk vines, but there was a palace made of stone that Mallow thought looked beautiful. But more importantly Mallow saw that he was of the same kind as the nimbus people. T-this is it! This is my home!  
“Alright everybody, listen up!” a thin and extremely busty woman said as she exited the palace. Nobody seemed to pay attention to her. “I said shuddap and listen up!” she shouted. At this the nimbus people stopped talking and gathered around the palace entrance.  
“King Nimbus’ condition is growing worse. This means we’ll be losing our magnificent ruler…,” the busty woman said sadly. The nimbus people whispered nervously among themselves at this tragic news.  
“But!” the busty woman continued on. “After years of searching high and low I’ve finally found the prince. Yes,” she said as the citizens chattered excitedly. “Prince Mallow has finally returned to us!” The busty woman stepped to the side and looked back into the palace. “Prince Mallow…,” she called into the palace, but nobody came out. “Please…sir…prince?” Nothing. “Get over here!” Still nobody came out.  
“It would appear that our young monarch has a case of stage fright. Please excuse me for a moment,” the woman laughed nervously and went back into the palace. After a few minutes a very large bird popped out of the palace.  
“Introducing the one and only Prince Mallow!” the woman said as she came back outside and stood next to the bird.  
“Er…welcome back, Prince Mallow!” a nimbus man called out.  
“You, uh, look like your…you look nice, Prince Mallow!” a nimbus woman said.  
“You’ve certainly grown…up, Prince Mallow!” a nimbus man said. The giant bird turned to the woman and seemed to whisper something to her.  
“What’s this?!” the busty woman exclaimed. “You’re asking me? Why, I don’t know what to say. …I’ve made up my mind! At Prince Mallow’s request I shall become his queen!” The woman laughed and cleared her throat. “Well, that’s that! You can go back to doing…whatever it is you do!” she said and started shoving the giant bird back into the palace.  
“What a coincidence, a prince with the same name as me! But, everything seems so peaceful around here,” Mallow looked around. “I don’t think the Star Piece landed here after all.”  
“After Monstermama arranged for us to come here we can’t give up yet. Why don’t we stop by the item shop first, maybe we can gear up and get a lead on the Star Piece,” Mario said and led the group into the shop.  
“You have that ‘I’m looking for something’ look in your eyes,” the shopkeeper said as they filed in. “What can I get for you today?”  
“The four of us will take a new set of clothes, and what do you have in the line of weapons?” Mario asked. The shopkeeper showed what he had to offer. Mario and Mallow took new sets of gloves for punching while Geno selected a hand cannon to shoot bullets from both arms and Toadstool picked out a war fan.  
“By the way,” Mario said once they had changed and were paying for everything. “Have you seen a large, colorful star around here called a Star Piece? It should’ve fallen from the sky several days ago.”  
“No, I haven’t seen anything like that, but I do work in here all day. Why not ask Garro? He’s a famous sculptor for the royal family. I don’t think he’s had much work since the king fell ill.  
“Where can we find Garro?”  
“His studio is right next to the palace, you can’t miss it.”  
Back outside Mario located the cluster of beanstalk vines located next to the palace and led the group inside. Inside the studio there were several statues of the busty woman from earlier. A lone nimbus man was putting the finishing touches of gold-colored paint on one of the statues.  
“Welcome,” Garro said looking over his shoulder when he realized he had visitors. “What can I do for you folks from down under today?”  
“We’ve traveled here looking for a Star Piece,” Mario said. “It’s large, colorful, and fell from the sky a few days ago. Have you seen anything like that around here?”  
“No, afraid not,” Garro said and shook his head. “I’m usually working in here, especially now that I’ve gotten orders for so many statues of Valentina,” he said, gesturing to the statues of the busty woman.  
Mallow wasn’t paying attention; he was too busy looking at all the statues. In one of the corners he saw one that looked familiar and walked over. It was more than just familiar; it looked almost exactly like him!  
“Hey, look! It’s me!” Mallow exclaimed as he looked at the statue.  
“What? Oh, that old thing?” Garro said as he walked over to Mallow and the statue. “That was King Nimbus when he was young-” Garro faltered when Mallow turned around, revealing he really did look just like the statue. “W-w-what the…?! Who are you?!” Garro asked, wide-eyed and trembling slightly.  
“My name’s Mallow,” Mallow introduced himself. “I’m a friend of Mario’s; I’m helping him search for the Star Pieces with everyone else!”  
“Mallow…,” Garro broke into a wide smile before kneeling before Mallow, much to his surprise. “Forgive me for not recognizing you sooner, your highness. You’ve grown up into a splendid young prince!”  
“WHAT?!” Mallow yelled and fell over. “I-I, m-m-me, the prince? But, how can that be?!”  
“Nearly ten years ago bandits from Land’s End attacked the palace and kidnapped the baby prince. All of the palace guards searched high and low, but not a trace of him could be found. It was as though he had vanished into thin air!”  
“Mallow here was raised by Frogfucius over at Tadpole Pond as his grandson. He told us that Mallow had washed out of Midas Falls nearly ten years ago,” Mario said.  
“So, that’s it then. I don’t know how you wound up all the way at Tadpole Pond but you are, without a doubt, Prince Mallow.”  
“I-I don’t believe it! I’m a prince! We did it, Mario! We found my home, my family!” Mallow jumped for joy. Mario, Geno, and Toadstool smiled; Bowser just rolled his eyes, but Mallow was too happy to care.  
“So, Valentina didn’t tell you any of this?” Garro asked. “She told me yesterday she found you while I was delivering her statues.”  
“Yesterday? Um, we only got here fifteen minutes ago,” Geno said.  
“What? Oh no! Valentina is overthrowing the royal family!” Garro exclaimed. “I had a feeling she was up to something, but I never expected it was anything this serious!”  
“Oh no! We have to save my parents right away!” Mallow said and rushed out of Garro’s studio and to the palace entrance. But before he could get inside a couple of guards blocked his path.  
“Halt! By order of Queen Valentina no one may enter the palace without her permission!” one of the guards said.  
“The king needs his rest, after all!” the other guard said. Both guards looked at each other and smirked.  
“I don’t care! I have to get in there!” Mallow said. One of the guards smacked him with his spear.  
“You could be Prince Mallow for all I care; you’re still not getting in!”  
Mallow was about to begin charging energy when he realized people were starting to stare. This is a bad idea. If I attack the guards will surely call for backup, and they might even kick us out of Nimbus Land. And then we won’t be able to do anything at all! We need a plan…. Mallow turned and walked back to Garro’s studio.  
“I take it you met the new palace guards. As I was just telling your friends, we need to come up with a plan. The entrance guards change shifts soon, so it’s an ideal time to sneak you inside,” Garro said.  
“I still say we just beat ‘em up and force our way in,” Bowser said.  
“We can do that after we’re inside,” Toadstool said. “Right now we need something that involves stealth.”  
“Too bad there’s not a cap that turns you invisible so we could just walk past the guards,” Mario said. “Or a mushroom that turns you into a bee. Then we could just fly in through a window.”  
“Let’s try to get serious now,” Geno said. “There’s got to be a way to sneak in there.”  
“Wait…I’ve got it!” Garro said. “I’ll paint all of you to look just like my statues, and then take you in as part of my latest delivery! They won’t suspect a thing!”  
“Yeah, let’s do it!” Mallow said.  
“Sounds like a plan, Garro!” Mario said.  
Working quickly, Garro painted all five of them the same golden color as the statues. When he had finished the group loaded themselves onto a cart while Garro loaded a couple of Valentina statues onto it.  
“Now, it takes time for the paint to dry, so please try not to touch too many things or it’ll start to rub off,” Garro warned them. “The king and queen are probably somewhere in the back, but I honestly don’t know. I can’t rule out that she didn’t throw them into the dungeon. Pick your ‘statue’ poses now, because it’s time for my daily delivery.” As soon as everyone had gotten into position Garro hauled the cart out of his studio and to the palace entrance.  
“I’m here with Valentina’s daily delivery,” Garro told the guards at the entrance.  
“Alright, go on in-halt!” one of the guards said when he saw the group in the cart. “These aren’t statues of Valentina at all!”  
“O-of course not, they’re art that Valentina requested. You know, to make her beauty stand out more.”  
“Oh, well, in that case, you may proceed,” the guards said and allowed Garro to pass.  
“That was a close one,” Garro whispered once they were in the entrance hall of the palace. Very quickly the group got out of the cart and reassumed their poses while Garro unloaded the real statues. “Valentina has never requested statues of anything other than herself.”  
“O, ho, ho, ho! Now, these are just lovely!” Valentina said as she walked into the entrance hall. “Outstanding work as always, Garro! Only you can capture my stunning beauty in the form of such exquisite art.”  
“Thank you, Valentina. Now, if you’ll excuse me-”  
“Halt! What are these ugly statues doing here?!” Valentina yelled while gesturing at Mario and friends.  
“Oh, well, its art I created just for you, Valentina. I call this one ‘A Plumber’s Lament’,” Garro said and walked over to Mario. “Observe, the thick mustache covering the sad, innocent smile of a simple fool. And the sideburns, conveying his blue collar roots. And the legs, strong. The legs of the masses! What do you think?”  
“You know, as I take another look at this I have to say that you have created something with powerful emotion! Yes, this is representative of the people who serve me! But what about these two here?” Valentina asked as she looked at Bowser and Toadstool.  
“Why Valentina, this is Beauty and the Beast! The cruel, ugly, evil koopa king plays the part of the Beast. Beneath the tough exterior of King Bowser rests none of than a heart of gold! And Princess Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom is Beauty, although of course she’s not nearly as beautiful as you, Valentina! Unlike everybody else Princess Toadstool has recognized the true side of Bowser, because why else would she always be kidnapped by the koopa king?”  
“Oh, Garro, I love fairy tales! Why, looking at this nearly brings a tear to my eye! And how about these over here?”  
“The nimbus kid is the adoration the people have for you, Valentina! Even at a young age, he cannot wait to serve the royal family. When he looks at you, he knows that no one else in the Mushroom World is as beautiful, wise, or caring as Valentina! And his companion is none other than a court jester, a simple minded being who believes he exists only for your amusement and yours alone!”  
“Yes, it’s true that I am all of those things! Oh, Garro, only you can create sculptures with such gentle beauty and raw power! Return to your studio and create more amazing art for me!” Valentina told Garro. Garro bowed and exited the palace at once.  
“Dodo! Dodo!” Valentina yelled as soon as Garro had gone, but nobody came. “That bird brain, I swear…Dodo! Don’t sit around like a roast! Hurry up and carry these in!” After another minute the large bird from earlier finally waddled into the room.  
“It’s about time!” Valentina snapped at Dodo and smacked him. “Get these new statues set up at once, and step on it! There are more things you have to do today, you know!”  
Valentina walked out of the entrance hall. When she had gone Dodo furiously pecked at one of the Valentina statues before hauling the group and the two new Valentina statues into a side room near the front of the palace. When he had gone everybody sighed in relief.  
“Who does that Garro think he is, calling me ugly?! But man, I gotta say Valentina is pretty good looking!” Bowser laughed.  
“Good, maybe you can kidnap her for a change,” Toadstool said.  
“This place seems pretty big,” Mallow said as he admired the palace décor. “Where do we start looking?”  
“We’ll take it one room at a time,” Geno said. “They’ll have to turn up eventually.”  
“Come on, I think he’s gone far enough now,” Mario said and went to open the door.  
“Dodo!” Valentina yelled from just the other side. “Did you remember to polish the statues after putting them up? No?! Then get to it! And as soon as you’ve finished I want an ice cold margarita right away!”  
“Mario, Garro said we weren’t supposed to get touched! If he polishes us our disguises will be ruined!” Mallow urgently whispered as they ran back to their places.  
“Judging by the way he pecked that statue earlier I don’t think it’s polishing we have to worry about! Dodge those pecks, everyone!”  
Just as Mario finished speaking Dodo waddled into the room. Rustling his feathers angrily he started pecking the Valentina statues, but when he got to Mario he jumped out of the way. Dodo started to walk on when he looked back at Mario. Dodo paused for a moment in confusion before trying to peck Mallow, who was just short enough that he could duck out of the way.  
When Dodo got to Geno he dodged out of the way to the left. Dodo didn’t appear to think anything was wrong, until suddenly he turned and ran back to peck Geno a second time. This time Geno dodged to the right. Dodo nervously backed away and turned to the Bowser statue. But when Dodo pulled back to peck Bowser grabbed his beak and shook his head. Dodo turned and fled out of the room with wide eyes.  
“Do you think he’s going to tell?” Toadstool asked.  
“No, I think he’s just scared of us,” Geno said. “Statues revenge after pecking so many of them I suppose.”  
“I think he’s gone for sure now,” Mario said. “Let’s start searching.” The group walked out of the side room but had only taken a few steps when they heard the voices of the guards at the entrance and froze again.  
“I’m absolutely exhausted; I didn’t know being a guard was so boring! I can’t believe we decided to do this for her!” one of the guards said as they flew in.  
“She pays the boss, and that’s all he cares about. We earn more outright standing around than stealing from travelers headed up here to Nimbus Land.” The other guard said.  
“At least it could be worse,” the first guard said as he eyed all the “statues” in the room. “We don’t have Dodo’s job. He has to polish Valentina’s statues every day!”  
“And he’s her personal servant, too! Ha, here’s how I’d polish her dumb statues!” the guard said as he started jabbing at Mario. The other guard joined in and Mario, under too much pressure, finally jumped.  
“Since when do statues move?” one of them nervously asked.  
“It’s one of those, you know, hi-tech, super realistic ones. …Let’s get outta here!” the other guard said and they both fled.  
“Oh no, the paints coming off,” Mallow said, noticing that large patches of paint had come off of Mario now.  
“It’s coming off on all of us,” Geno said. “It must’ve rubbed off when Dodo displayed us as statues,”  
“I don’t think we could’ve kept it up for much longer,” Toadstool said as she wiped the paint off of herself with a handkerchief. When she had finished she passed it around so everyone could wipe the rest of the paint off.  
“Excellent, let’s start knocking some heads around!” Bowser said.  
“The sooner we kick them out, the better,” Mario agreed. “It’ll be easier to get the guards loyal to the king and queen back in here once we boot these ones out of here.”  
The group set off down a corridor and into a new room. There were a couple of birdy guards inside gossiping, until they realized they weren’t alone.  
“Queen Valentina, I know what this looks like but we weren’t-hey, you aren’t Valentina!”  
The birdies grabbed their spears and started jabbing at random. Mario punched one and Bowser swung his spiked link into the other. Both of them dropped their spears and flew away.  
Past the other side of the room was another corridor. Three doors stood before them.  
“Which one do you think we should try first?” Geno asked.  
“How about the one on the right? Maybe it’ll be right!” Mario grinned. Mallow giggled, but Bowser groaned.  
The room on the right turned out to be some sort of conservatory, with pretty looking exotic plants, and even a fountain in the middle. Sitting in a beam of light was a group of three birdies playing poker together.  
“Who…? Hey! We have intruders! Better raise the alarm!” one of them said as they threw down their cards and grabbed their spears. Toadstool started smacking the one in the middle with her war fan while Geno shot the one on the right. Mallow punched the one on the left and quickly charged and unleashed thunderbolt on the group. Two of the birdies fainted while the third one fled in tears.  
Back out in the corridor the middle door turned out to be locked.  
“It’s gotta be the way forward,” Mallow said.  
“Heh, this flimsy thing is no match for this bod,” Bowser said as he prepared to smash down the door.  
“Hold on a moment,” Mario said. “We don’t want to alert the entire place to our presence. Let’s try the other door first and see what’s inside before we resort to breaking down doors.”  
“Hmph! Party pooper,” Bowser grumbled as they went through the door on the left. Unlike the other ones, the birdies standing guard at the head of a flight of stairs going down weren’t goofing off.  
“Halt!” they yelled and started swinging their spears. Mario jumped on one’s head while Geno shot the other. Confused, the one Mario had jumped on crashed into the other one and knocked both of them out.  
“This must lead down into the dungeon. Let’s check it out,” Mallow said and quickly went down the stairs, heart pounding furiously. “Mom? Dad? Are you here?” he called out into the dungeon.  
“Who are you? You sound like a child,” a voice called back from the first cell on the left. Mallow walked over and found a lone nimbus man in there. “M-my stars! Prince Mallow!” the man exclaimed.  
“Who are you? Are my parents here?” Mallow asked.  
“I’m Strato, former head of the guards,” Strato said, kneeling before Mallow. “We don’t know where the king and queen are. Everybody down here was working in the palace the day Valentina took over.”  
Mallow’s heart sank as he looked around. The other nimbus people in the dungeon were gathered at the front of their cells, whispering excitedly about the return of the long-lost prince.  
“Your majesty, how did you know to come here? And how did you get past Valentina’s vile new bandit guards?” Strato asked.  
“I came here with my friends looking for a Star Piece and found out about my true self, and Valentina,” Mallow said. “The guards aren’t so tough, but we can’t get into the center room upstairs.”  
“Valentina probably keeps it locked on the off chance that if intruders such as yourselves got in they wouldn’t be able to reach the throne room. Valentina confiscated nearly all of my keys when I was captured. Fortunately, she overlooked my master key,” Strato said and passed a key through the door to Mallow.  
“Thanks! But, what about you guys?”  
“Valentina must’ve changed the cell locks before capturing us because the master key won’t work on it. But it should work on the center door, if she hasn’t changed that lock too.”  
“We have to find and stop Valentina, but I promise we’ll come back and free everyone here as soon as we do,” Mallow said.  
“Please be careful, your majesty. Valentina is much more powerful than she looks,” Strato warned.  
“Don’t worry; it’s me that Valentina has to watch out for!” Mallow said before turning and returning upstairs with the rest of the group. Back out in the corridor Mallow tried the master key on the middle door; the key fit and Mallow opened the door.  
Inside the center of the room was a giant white egg with big red spots. Flying above it was Shy Away, watering the egg with a new watering can.  
“La dee dah, here you go, big eggie,” Shy Away sang. “I’m giving you plenty of nutrients so you’ll grow up to be big and strong!”  
“I hate to break it to you, but it only works that way on plants,” Mario called up to Shy Away.  
“Oh, oh, oh…Mario and his friends are here! I-I better warn Queen Valentina right away!” Shy Away flew to the door on the other side of the room, but it wouldn’t open. “Oh, oh, oh…it’s locked! W-what should I do?” Shy Away flew up to the ceiling and started flying around nervously.  
“I’ll let you out!” a voice came from the giant egg. “But, only if you play with me, heehee!”  
“We don’t have time for that right now, maybe later,” Geno said.  
“Oh, that’s too bad, because I’m not going to give you a choice!” the voice said as the egg cracked. The shell burst open and a birdo popped out.  
“Tada, presenting the one and only Birdo!” Birdo said as she blew kisses to everybody. “Let’s play my favorite game: dodge the eggs!”  
Birdo started spitting giant eggs around the room. Mario picked up one of the fallen eggs and threw it back at Birdo.  
“Ouch! Hey! You’re not supposed to do that part!” Birdo swung her tail at Mario. Geno shot at Birdo while Mallow charged up energy for shocker. “Heehee, I’m just the cutest lil thing!” flowed into Mallow’s mind before sending shocker into Birdo with a crack.  
“Owie! You’re not supposed to do that either!” Birdo spat some eggs at Mallow. Bowser started swinging his spiked link in the air, knocking the eggs aside before tossing it into Birdo. Mario started bouncing on Birdo’s head while Toadstool smacked Birdo with her war fan.  
“You’re! Not! Supposed! To! Do! That!” Birdo yelled and started spitting eggs at a furious rate. Mallow, ignoring the eggs bouncing off of him, managed to punch Birdo with Mario while Toadstool smacked her again.  
“Here, why don’t you dodge this!” Geno said and fired Geno Whirl into Birdo.  
“Y-you big meanies! Take the stupid key! Free the king and queen! See if I care!” Birdo yelled and spat out a key before fleeing the room.  
“That was really bizarre,” Geno said as Toadstool healed the group. “Are they all like that?”  
“Pretty much,” Mario said as he used the new key on the door. The door led out into a long corridor. Aside from the door on the far side there was one other in the hallway, on the left side just before the other door.  
“There’s a note there,” Mallow noticed once they got close. He picked it up and read it aloud. “‘King Nimbus is resting in bed. Absolutely no running in the hall’-this is it, we found them!” Mallow said. Heart pounding, he tried to open the door, but it was locked. Mallow tried the master key on it, but it didn’t work. Mario tried the new key on it, but it didn’t work either.  
“Pfft, that door stands no chance against me! Feast your eyes on this mass of muscle!” Bowser said as he prepared to ram the door. But just as he started to move Mallow grabbed his arm, yanking back Bowser and accidentally sending him into the floor.  
“Wait! What if my dad really is bedridden and dying?” Mallow said, trying not to think about it. “Breaking down the door might make things worse.”  
“Let’s find Valentina and confront her,” Geno suggested. “We can break down the door afterwards if we really have to.”  
“But…I really wanted to break down a door…,” Bowser whined.  
“Tell you what Bowser, when we get to your castle you can break down all the doors you want. How’s that sound?” Mario said.  
“Y-you, shut up! Before I start tossing you around again!”  
“Queen Valentina…!” Shy Away said as it flew by and through the door at the end of the hall.  
“Oh no, he’s going to warn her that we’re here!” Toadstool said.  
“We’ll just have to stop him first!” Mario said as they went through the door after him. It led into an antechamber. Shy Away wasn’t there, but a morbidly obese sky troopa was.  
“…Intruders. So, you got past my bandits, did you? Too bad you won’t get past me! I’ll protect Queen Valentina at all costs!”  
The heavy troopa started huffing and puffing as he tried to start moving, but Mario jumped on his head and knocked him out at once. The group shoved him aside and made their way into the throne room. Inside Valentina was sitting in one of the thrones, snatching a margarita out of Dodo’s wing and smacking him. Shy Away flew up to her.  
“Queen Valentina, the Mario monster and his monster friends that beat up smilax is here,” Shy Away said nervously.  
“Mario? What does a ‘Mario’ look like?” Valentina asked, sipping her margarita.  
“Well, it has a big bushy mustache, long sideburns, and uh, a pair of mean looking legs!”  
“Hmm…there’s something familiar about that…. Wait, that sounds like one of the statues Garro delivered earlier! Traitor!” Valentina yelled and pounded a fist on one of the arms of the throne.  
“What are we going to do, Valentina? What are we going to do?!” Shy Away yelled and fluttered around nervously.  
“Not listen to you, for one thing. I have nothing to worry about. Without this key, the king isn’t going anywhere,” Valentina said and started laughing. Dodo, realizing they were no longer alone, started pulling on Valentina’s arm.  
“Don’t bother me, I’m busy,” Valentina snapped and drank more margarita. Dodo however kept pulling on her arm. “What?! What could possibly be more important right now?” Dodo pointed to Mario and the others. “You…! How did you get past all my guards?!”  
“Valentina! Hand over the key right now!” Mallow said angrily as thunder rumbled outside nearby. He ran forward, but tripped on the steps halfway there. “Ack!”  
“Didn’t anybody teach you some manners? And who are you, anyways?”  
“I’m the real prince, that’s who!” Mallow said as the rest of the group stood around him.  
“Brat!” Valentina snapped. “And how dare you break in here and listen to a private conversation!”  
“Private? Private?! Everyone in a ten mile radius could hear you!”  
“Hmph! If you’re going to be this rude then I’m just going to leave!” Valentina drained the rest of her margarita before heading out the door on the other side of the throne room.  
“Valentina, don’t leave us behind!” Shy Away wailed and flew after her, closely followed by Dodo.  
“What are we waiting for?! We have to stop her!” Mallow exclaimed. Opening the door at the far end of the throne room led into another hall, this one filled with blue bird guards.  
“Halt!” the blue birds yelled and swooped at the group.  
“Try and take this on, if you can!” Bowser said and started swinging his spiked link around. With all the blue birds closely clustered around he took all of them out in just a few swings.  
“Look! There they go!” Geno said, pointing to a door at the far end that just slammed close.  
“Come on! They won’t get away!” Mario said as they ran down the hallway, ignoring the other doors on the left and right. They flung the far door open and ran out into thin air!  
Everybody screamed as they fell. Mallow was afraid they were going to fall all the way back down to Bean Valley but a cloud stopped their fall.  
“Where are we, where did they go?” Mallow asked while looking around. Mallow recognized it as a cloud they had bypassed just before going up into Nimbus Land forward. Two nimbus guards, the only ones Valentina didn’t throw into the dungeon, blocked the way farther onto the cloud.  
“Sorry, royals only,” one of them told the group.  
“Prince Mallow just went through, but you’ll have to wait if you want to see him,” the other guard said.  
“What about Valentina, did you see her?” Geno asked them.  
“Sure, she just went up the vine. If you hurry you might catch her.”  
The group jumped back onto the beanstalk and back up into Nimbus Land. Over by the palace entrance Valentina knocked back a group of nimbus people with a burst of magic.  
“Look! While I’ve been wasting my time listening to your stupid opinions Mario and his friends caught up to me!”  
“It’s over, Valentina!” Mallow yelled. “Hand over the key, or fight!”  
“Dodo! Dodo!” Valentina yelled. “I swear that bird has a permanent brain cramp…! Dodo! Get over here and help me right now!” Dodo finally flew back up to the main cloud and waddled over to Valentina.  
“Listen up Dodo, take those two and deal with them,” Valentina said while pointing at Bowser and Geno. “I’ll take on the rest myself.”  
“Your funeral!” Mario said, but Mallow put out his arm so Mario and Toadstool couldn’t approach Valentina.  
“No. You can fight Dodo, but I have to fight Valentina myself!”  
“Mallow-”  
“This is something I have to do! This is my kingdom, and it’s up to me to protect it!”  
“You can’t be serious!” Valentina laughed. “You’ve never had formal training in the art of weather magic. What can you possibly do to me?”  
“I may be self-taught, but there’s plenty I can do!” Mallow yelled and punched Valentina. Dark clouds filled the air as Mallow himself was filled with fury. Valentina smacked him back with her own war fan. The air quickly filled with shards of ice and Mallow was struck with a blizzard attack.  
“I should’ve gone down to Land’s End with the bandits and killed you myself years ago instead of letting them go off alone to keep up pretenses a while longer! I’ll just have to make up for it right now, and present the king and queen with your body before killing them, too!”  
“I won’t lose to you!” Mallow yelled and started punching Valentina again while quickly charging energy. “He won’t stop me; I’ll still be queen!” flowed into his head before he jumped out of the way as he brought down shocker on Valentina.  
“Perhaps I’ve underestimate your skill a little, but you don’t have the skill or the power to beat me!” Valentina said and whacked him again with her war fan. Mallow took the opportunity to grab the war fan from Valentina and throw it away from her before punching her again.  
“You think that’s going to stop me?” Valentina laughed. “Try and handle this attack, if you can!” Valentina held out her hand and formed an orb of water in it. Mallow immediately recognized it as the same water blast attack Yaridovich had used yesterday. As quick as he could Mallow charged energy and unleashed thunderbolt on Valentina and the orb just as “This will finish him off!” flowed into his head.  
Valentina took the full force of the water blast attack and was flung back. Mallow rapidly charged a powerful shocker attack. “How did he do that?!” flowed into his mind and he brought down shocker on Valentina with a mighty crack.  
“You’ll have to do better than that, Valentina! I already know how to handle that attack!”  
“I’ll beat you yet, brat!” Valentina yelled and formed large chunks of ice in the air. The chunks of ice flew through the air and crashed onto Mallow’s head, knocking him down. Valentina started laughing.  
“Looks like you’re not as tough as you look! Aww, look, you’re crying at the end of your game! You really are pathetic!” Valentina said as rain fell on Mallow.  
“I’m not crying, Valentina!” Mallow said as he stood up, almost fully healed. “My healing rain can heal injuries on my command!”  
“How…? No matter, now that you’re wet this lightning will finish you!” Valentina yelled and summoned a lightning bolt of her own on Mallow. Mallow was knocked back a little, but got to his feet immediately.  
“Was that really the best lightning you can summon? Bowyer could do better than that, and he didn’t stop us, either!” Mallow laughed a little before growing serious again. Mallow started charging again, building large amounts of energy, more than he used even on Yaridovich. “I won’t lose to some kid!” flowed into his mind. “I was saving a big one for Smithy, but I’ll practice it on you right now!” Mallow yelled and brought down the biggest shocker he’d managed yet down onto Valentina.  
Valentina screamed and collapsed. Panting, she struggled to get up again.  
“I don’t believe this…! Dodo, let’s get out of here, now!” Valentina yelled. Dodo flew over and Valentina grabbed onto his feet. “Whoever Smithy is, I hope he absolutely destroys all of you!” Valentina shouted down to the group as Dodo flew both of them away.  
“Mallow, you did it!” Mario said as the group surrounded Mallow.  
“You did a great job, well done!” Geno said.  
“But she took the key with her! We gotta chase after her somehow and-ow!” Something small and golden had dropped onto Mallow’s head. “The key!” he exclaimed and picked it up, heart pounding furiously. The dark clouds from before parted and dissolved in a moment. Mallow turned and looked back at the group.  
“Go on, they’re waiting for you,” Toadstool said. “We’ll be here when you’re ready!”  
“Go ahead, Mallow. It’s time for you to make their wish come true!” Geno said. Mallow smiled.  
“I’ll be back soon!” Mallow said and ran back into palace, his heart soaring like it never had before.  
________________________________________  
Inside the tiny room Valentina had locked them in, King and Queen Nimbus were sitting sadly and quietly when footsteps rapidly approach the room; it sounded like a large group of people.  
“That doesn’t sound like Valentina,” Queen Nimbus said. A key turned noisily in the lock and the door was flung open.  
“Your majesties! Are you alright?” Strato asked them, surrounded by the rest of the guards and palace staff.  
“Ah, Strato! It’s good to see you again,” King Nimbus said, his wife and himself both standing up and smiling. Strato bowed his head.  
“Your majesties, I’m so sorry. Everything happened so quickly and we were overwhelmed. There was nothing we could do to stop them,”  
“Don’t blame yourself, Strato. Nobody could have predicted what Valentina was going to do, or what happened to poor Mallow…,” King Nimbus had to clear the lump in his throat before he could continue. “The important thing is that you managed to escape and stop her eventually.” But Strato shook his head.  
“No, no, it wasn’t us at all!”  
“What?” King and Queen Nimbus looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Strato. “But, then who…?”  
“Who indeed, your majesty!” Strato said with a wide grin before stepping aside. At his cue the rest of the guards and staff parted. Standing behind them was a nimbus boy of about eleven with pink hair, his mother’s hair, and his father’s eyes…. King and Queen Nimbus’ eyes widened as the world around them seemed to stop.  
“Mom…Dad…!” Mallow said, his bottom lip trembling as tears formed in his eyes. For several seconds nothing happened, but then Mallow suddenly ran towards them.  
“Mallow!” they exclaimed together and rushed towards him as well, their arms open, their own tears already flowing down their cheeks. Mallow leapt into their arms and for the first time he could remember, was embraced tightly by his parents. Mallow held on tight as tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t care because he was so happy. Together, they held on like that for a long time.  
“Our dear, precious child! Where have you been all these years?” Queen Nimbus asked. Mallow wiped his eyes and looked up.  
“It’s…kind of a long story,” he said.  
“Mallow, we’ve been waiting nearly ten years to hear your story. You take as much time as you need,” King Nimbus said, leading his wife and Mallow into the throne room.  
Mallow smiled and told them everything, how he was raised by Frogfucius and grew up at Tadpole Pond, how he saw a massive sword smash into Bowser’s Keep a few days ago and brought stars down with it, and all of his adventure with Mario and the others, and how they’d come to Nimbus Land looking for the sixth Star Piece. While he talked the palace staff bustled around them, removing all the Valentina statues and replacing them with statues of the king and queen.  
“And after she dropped the key they told me to go in and, well, I think you know the rest. But we never did find out where the Star Piece is.”  
“Never mind that for a moment. Are they still outside waiting?” Queen Nimbus asked.  
“They said they’d be waiting,” Mallow said.  
“Well, hurry up and bring them in, then! We need to thank the saviors of Nimbus Land!” King Nimbus said.  
“I’ll be right back!” Mallow said and rushed out of the throne room, down the corridors, into the entrance hall and back outside to the entrance where everyone waited. “Come on! They want to meet you!” he told them and led them back through the palace and to the throne room.  
“Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Mario, and the rest of my travel companions!”  
“How can we ever thank you enough? I’m Mallow’s father, King Nimbus,” he said.  
“Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for looking after our dear child,” Queen Nimbus told them.  
“This is Princess Toadstool from the Mushroom Kingdom,” Mallow said, introducing her.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Toadstool curtseyed to the king and queen. “We’ll have to create a formal alliance between our kingdoms soon!”  
“Ah, I’ve heard so much about you! May I have your autograph?” King Nimbus asked her.  
“Don’t embarrass Mallow, dear!” Queen Nimbus said.  
“Oh, well, never mind then. Who is this gentleman here?”  
“This is Mario! He helped me get the Frog Coin back from Croco, and we’ve been traveling together since then!” Mallow said.  
“Nice to meet you! Mallow’s been a great asset to the team!” Mario said.  
“I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart. Wait…are you the Mario?! Jumping Mario?! Autograph, please!” King Nimbus said.  
“That’s quite enough, dear…,” Queen Nimbus said.  
“Okay, okay…how about a jump, then? Even a hop will do!”  
“How’s this for a hop?!” Mario said and leapt high in the air. When he landed he pumped his fist in the air, as did Mallow, Geno, Toadstool, and even Bowser.  
“Oh, fantastic!” King Nimbus exclaimed. “Show me again later!” he quietly whispered before turning his attention to Bowser. “And who do we have over here?”  
“This is Bowser, leader of the Koopa Troop. You can see his castle from here!” Mallow said.  
“Bwa, ha, ha, ha!” Bowser laughed.  
“Oh, yet another famous person! This is just too much. I must have your autograph!”  
“Behave yourself, please! These are Mallow’s good friends!” Queen Nimbus reminded him.  
“Not even a little scribble? Very well. I’m forgetting my manners in my excitement! So, who is there over here?” King Nimbus asked, looking at Geno.  
“This is Geno, a star from Star Haven! He came down to look for the seven Star Pieces!”  
“Oh yes, that story about the Star Street! How awful! You must return wishes to working order as soon as possible!”  
“That’s…Star ‘Road’,” Geno sighed.  
“Speaking of Star Pieces, do they happen to be large, and quite colorful?” Queen Nimbus asked.  
“That’s them alright!” Mario said. “Wait, have you…?”  
“Yes! We were standing at the window right over there and saw that awful sword smash into Bowser’s Keep! And when it did a large, red star fell straight into Barrel Volcano!” Queen Nimbus said.  
“The Star Piece!” Geno exclaimed. “But how can we reach it?”  
“The royal hot springs are perched right above the volcano. It’d be quite a jump, but you should be able to make it,” King Nimbus said. “However, dreaded ‘Czar Dragon’ lives in there. It’ll be tough getting the Star Piece out of there, but I suppose working together you can manage it! Why, when I was young, I-”  
“Not now, dear. Now, once you’re at Barrel Volcano, be sure to find Hinopio. He’ll be able to help you,” Queen Nimbus told the group and turned to Mallow. “You’re going to go with them, aren’t you?”  
“Yes! We’ve already come this far, I can’t abandon the team now, they need me!” Mallow clenched his fists, feeling determined to help stop Smithy.  
“Alright, but please be careful, Mallow! Come back after you find the Star Piece, okay?”  
“Yeah, you bet!” Mallow said.  
“Come on, let’s get going right away,” Mario said.  
“I love Barrel Volcano!” Bowser said as they left the palace. “It’s probably the second best place there is, after my castle!”  
“Do I even want to know what you do at Barrel Volcano?” Geno asked as they crossed the cloud and started back down the beanstalk.  
“Family picnics! There’s no better place to do it!”  
I’d rather have a picnic someplace normal, like at the beach, or a nice field, Mallow thought as he hopped down onto the hot spring cloud. Feeling slightly shy he walked up to the guards.  
“Prince Mallow!” one of them said. “Sorry we didn’t know who you were earlier. What can we do for you today?”  
“It’s no big deal. We’d like to check out the hot springs, if you don’t mind.”  
“Well, you are allowed, but I don’t know about the rest of you,” the other guard said.  
“My dad gave them permission,” Mallow said.  
“Oh, well, if that’s the case go on through!” Walking past the guards Mallow could see the hot spring was a nice area, with pretty landscaping and statues of his parents.  
“Eh, more of a warm spring by my standards, but not too bad!” Bowser said as he dipped a toe into the water. “How about we take a dip together, Toadstool?”  
“Shut up,” Toadstool said. She and the others walked past the spring and to the edge of the cloud. Mallow looked down; the crater was directly beneath them.  
“Well, might as well take the plunge, right?” Mario said and leapt off the cloud. Geno jumped after him. Mallow gulped and jumped as well. Down through the air he fell, into the crater, down the neck, and landing with Mario and Geno somewhere in the depths of the volcano. Seconds later Toadstool followed by Bowser landed as well.  
“Isn’t it great?” Bowser looked around. “All the lava at my castle comes from Barrel Volcano, you know!”  
“Uh, whatever you say. Geno, do you think the Star Piece is still intact down here?” Mario asked as they set off down the path.  
“Well, considering we haven’t burst into flame yet I think that’s a pretty good sign,” Geno said.  
Flaming pyrospheres burst out of the lava and flew at the group. Bowser swung his spiked link around into several of them while Geno shot the others until all of them dissolved. Around the corner four purple oerlikons jumped out at them and started shooting spikes. Mallow quickly charged and unleashed thunderbolt on the group, defeating two of them outright. Mario punched one while Toadstool smacked the other with her war fan, defeating the other two.  
Farther up ahead a chained kong angrily charged at the group, accompanied by a couple of vomers. Mallow unleashed thunderbolt on the vomers while Mario punched the chained kong. The chained kong started throwing rocks until Geno shot at it, causing it to flee. More pyrospheres burst out of the lava. Bowser swung his chained link around into them until these had dissolved as well.  
This place is just awful! The heat is almost too much to handle! Mallow thought as they continued down the path again. I just need to concentrate on cold things. Snow, snowmen, icy drinks, coconut shaved ice, cold rain….  
“Hey! Who’s turning down the heat in here?!” Bowser yelled.  
“H-huh?” Mallow’s concentration broke and he started sweating again.  
“Hey, I thought I heard someone! I for a moment thought I was going nuts!” someone said. Mallow looked and saw a toad wearing all black and sunglasses with flames on his cap peeking out of a nearby cave.  
“Who are you?” Mario asked.  
“The name’s Hinopio! Why doncha step into my Hino Mart? It’s cooler inside.” The group followed Hinopio inside the Hino Mart. Mallow sighed; it was cooler inside this area!  
“How about some fire-proof gear if you’re going deeper inside?” Hinopio suggested behind a row of crates serving as a makeshift counter.  
“We’ll take them,” Mario said.  
I always thought I could only do electrical-based attacks, Mallow thought after changing into his new fire pants. But I wonder, do I have a full range of weather abilities I’ve never even tried using?  
“Pleasure doing business with ya,” Hinopio said as Mario paid for their near gear. “Before you leave, can I interest you in a stay at my inn? It’s nice and comfy,” Hinopio asked as he gestured at a pile of crates.”  
“Uh, maybe some other time, we’re in kind of a hurry right now. Thanks for the gear!” Mario said and led them out of the Hino Mart. They continued deeper into the volcano until a large group of pyrospheres burst out of the lava. But instead of moving in to attack they gathered closely and condensed into the shape of a dragon.  
“This must be the Czar Dragon the king and queen warned us about!” Geno said.  
Czar Dragon roared and shot a breath of flame at the group. Toadstool healed the group while Bowser swung his spiked link into Czar Dragon and Mario started jumping on its head. Geno charged a beam shot and fired it into the air, and the pillars of light called Geno Blast rained down on the dragon.  
Czar Dragon roared again and shot more flames at the group. Mallow charged energy, “I’m too hot to handle!” flowing into his head as he do so. Mallow brought shocker down on Czar Dragon, but Czar Dragon seemed unaffected.  
No good…his body is too well protected. If only I could do that water blast thing Yaridovich and Valentina did, or summon a blizzard. Wait…! Mallow started charging up energy again, and “I’m too hot to handle!” flowed into his mind again. But this time Mallow concentrated on cold things before unleashing his attack. Instead of lighting, a furious blizzard formed and swirled around Czar Dragon and condensed into a snowman before exploding in a burst of flurries. Czar Dragon roared in agony and sank back into the lava.  
“Alright, we-huh?” Mario stepped back as dragon bones rose out of the lava. The skeletal zombone roared and started slinging rocks down onto the group.  
“Oh yeah, let’s see how you handle this, ya bag of bones!” Bowser yelled and swung his chained link into zombone. The bones scatted everywhere and fell back into the lava again, but didn’t rise again.  
“How scary! I don’t know what we would’ve done if it had come back a second time!” Toadstool said.  
“Look, it’s the Star Piece!” Mallow exclaimed at the sight of it floating just behind where Czar Dragon had been. Eagerly they rushed forward, and just like the others the red Star Piece started circling around them, healing their injuries. But just as it was about to fall into Mario’s hands it vanished.  
“W-what? Where…?!” Mario started to say  
“Up there!” Geno exclaimed, pointing to the top of a ledge. Standing on it was a group of five metal ax-wielding monsters, and they had the Star Piece!  
“We got the star!” the red one exclaimed.  
“We’re amazing!” the green one said.  
“We’re unbeatable!” the yellow one announced.  
“We’re gorgeous!” the pink one said.  
“You better leave now, chumps!” the black one told them and they ran into the next room.  
“Oh no you don’t!” Mario said and ran after them with the others. The ax-wielders were standing atop another ledge in the next room  
“Hey Red, look down there! Those are the ugliest guys I’ve ever seen!” the black one said.  
“Eww! Gross!” the pink one yelled.  
“They look worse than Mario and his dumb friends!” the yellow one said.  
“They are Mario and his dumb friends, you idiot!” the green one said to the yellow one.  
“Listen up, group! We need to get this star to the Blade immediately! We’ll deal with them later!” the red one said as he grabbed the Star Piece and they fled.  
“You dirty, rotten…! Come on, we’re not letting them take that Star Piece!” Mario yelled as they ran up a path climbing up the neck of the volcano. Mallow, as before, fell behind the group.  
I…hate…these…stubby…legs! Mallow thought angrily as he chased after them. Finally he arrived onto the ledge of the crater after all of the others.  
“Where’s the Blade?!” the group of ax-wielders minus the red one yelled.  
“Shuddap already!” the red one shouted. He had barely finished speaking when a ship with a massive ax-blade on the front swooped down from the direction of Bowser’s Keep.  
“Finally!” the ax-wielding group jumped onto the ship. Right behind them was Mario and the others. As soon as they landed on the ship it rose high into the sky, higher than Nimbus Land even. Now that they were on the ship the ax-wielders turned their full attention to Mario and friends.  
“We fight for evil!” the red one said.  
“We live for disorder!” the black one said.  
“We like what we do!” the green one said.  
“We struggle for chaos!” the pink one said.  
“We are…,” the yellow one started to say.  
“The Axem Rangers!” they yelled all at once while striking a pose.  
“This Star Piece gives people hope!” Axem Red said as he tossed it behind an odd-looking tower with a face built into it. “It needs to be destroyed!  
“There’s no way we’ll let that happen!” Geno said.  
“We don’t need fancy introductions or moves!” Bowser cracked his knuckles.  
“Mario is way cooler than anybody working for that awful Smithy could ever hope to be!” Mallow said.  
“You watch what you say about Smithy!” Axem green said and shot a bolt of electricity at Mallow. Mallow started laughing.  
“What is it with bad guys and their weak electrical attacks? Let me show how it’s done!” Mallow started charging energy. “Nobody insults Smithy!” flowed into his mind before sending shocker down on Axem Green.  
“Gah! You…! Why don’t you chill out?!” Axem Green yelled and blasted Mallow with a strong shot of ice. Mallow fell back, but got back up.  
“Funny, I can do the same thing. Check it out!” Mallow said and started charging energy again, once again focusing on cold things. “I won’t lose to him!” flowed into his head and Mallow unleashed snowy on Axem Green.  
“Yo, Red!” Axem Green yelled.  
“What is it?” Axem Red yelled back as he slashed at Mario.  
“I have a headache!”  
“You’re totally out of shape!”  
“My make-up’s running!” Axem Pink whined as Toadstool whacked her with her war fan.  
“Then change brands!”  
“I’m hungry!” Axem Yellow whined after being knocked down by Bowser’s spiked link.  
“Chew on your tongue!”  
“I broke my shades!” Axem Black said after Geno shot him in the face.  
“Serves ya right!” Axem Red snapped before slamming his axe down in a fit of rage. “Enough! Now I’m angry! Rangers, formation ho!” Red yelled. The Axem Rangers struck their poses again before running behind the odd face-tower. Once they were behind it the tower opened its mouth through a series of hatches before it completely opened. When it did it sent a powerful blast into Mario and friends, knocking everyone over.  
“Mario, I don’t know if I can keep healing us indefinitely!” Toadstool said as she healed the group while the hatches were closing.  
“Maybe Mallow’s shocker can damage it, are you up to the task?” Mario asked Mallow.  
“Wait,” Geno said. “Let me try something first. I think I know what’ll work.”  
“Hurry up, before it opens again!” Bowser yelled.  
Geno changed shape, turning into a cannon, and aimed straight at the center of the hatches. As the hatches started opening again Mallow could see the Geno cannon building large amounts of energy. The moment the last hatch opened Geno fired a large sun-shaped energy ball into the mouth, causing the entire tower to explode. As soon as it did the Blade started shaking and began dropping altitude as the ship was rocked by a series of stronger explosions.  
“This isn’t possible! We’re supposed to be invincible!” Axem Red yelled.  
“Get ready, we’re going to jump onto Nimbus Land!” Mario yelled. “Now!” Mallow leapt with the others and landed safely on the cloud with the hot springs. Blade fell past the cloud, taking the Axem Rangers with it. The Blade crashed into the slope of Barrel Volcano, exploding into fiery fragments.  
“But what about the Star Piece?!” Mallow asked, horrified that it was still on the Blade.  
“Here it comes!” Mario said as it gently floated down towards them. This time it successfully fell into Mario’s hands.  
“Yes, we did it!” Mallow jumped for joy.  
“Come on, prince,” Geno said and smiled. “We promised your parents we’d go back to see them as soon as we got the Star Piece.  
“Yeah! Let’s get going!”


	8. In the Heart of the Factory

“Mom! Dad! We got the Star Piece!” Mallow exclaimed as he ran into the throne room. “We defeated the Czar Dragon, and he was pretty tough, but not tougher than us! And just as we got the Star Piece these Smithy Gang jerks took it away! But we chased them to their ship and fought them too, and Geno did this really cool move that took down their entire ship and we got the Star Piece back again!”  
“He’s very enthusiastic, isn’t he?” Geno laughed. “Of course, I see where he gets it from now!”  
“That’s wonderful news! Now the Star, uh, Thing can be repaired, right?” King Nimbus asked. An awkward silence fell over the group. “I guess not…you’re still missing a piece, I take it.”  
“The last Star Piece…wait! We saw a star fall into Bowser’s Keep too, right dear?” Queen Nimbus said. “It must be in there!” Everybody looked out the window at Bowser’s Keep, and the sword keeping his menacing watch over the land.  
“We already know,” Mario said. “But that sword took out the bridge right after it crashed into it. There’s no way to reach it anymore.”  
“We never did figure that one out, did we?” said Geno. “If only there was a way we could just fly on in.”  
“Why, that’s easy!” King Nimbus said and laughed.  
“Yes of course, you should use the royal bus!” Queen Nimbus said.  
“That sounds great! Wait, what’s the royal bus?” Mallow asked.  
“Our personal vehicle, of course! It can fly us anywhere we want to go! But not too high, mind you,” King Nimbus explained.  
“Thank you very much, King Nimbus! As soon as you tell us where to board the royal bus we can set off for Bowser’s Keep right away,” Geno said.  
“Right now? But the sun’s going down!” Mario said.  
“Smithy’s going to be furious when he finds out we got the Star Piece, and took down the team he sent out to retrieve it, and took out his ship. And he’ll also know we’re coming to get him next. It’d be best not to let him be prepared, if we can.”  
“Awesome, it’s about time we’re finally getting my castle back! Let’s move out, troops!” Bowser laughed.  
“But you can’t go now! I’ve arranged for you to have a wonderful dinner with us. To honor the heroes of Nimbus Land and celebrate Mallow’s long awaited return!” King Nimbus said.  
“Oh, well, in that case we can wait a little longer,” said Bowser.  
“I have to admit I’m feeling a little hungry. What do you say, Geno? Could it hurt to postpone our attack a couple more hours?” Mario asked Geno.  
“I suppose not,” Geno said.  
“How wonderful of you to join us!” Queen Nimbus said. “Well then, shall we go to the dining hall?”  
King and Queen Nimbus led the group out of the throne room’s back door and into one of the rooms in the back corridor. The dining hall turned out to be quite large, enough room to serve dozens at a state dinner. King and Queen Nimbus sat the head of one of the tables, the group clustered with them at that end, with Mallow sitting happily next to his parents.  
“If we had enough time I would’ve arranged for the feast to end all feasts! But since that wasn’t possible I hope shroom steaks are an acceptable substitute,” King Nimbus said.  
“Oh yes, that sounds wonderful! Mario and I love shroom steaks!” Toadstool said.  
“You can’t beat any dish with mushrooms in it!” Mario said and laughed.  
The shroom steaks were very tender and flavorful, unlike anything Mallow ever ate at Tadpole Pond. Mallow happily ate and talked with his friends and family. When they had finished eating Mallow was feeling pretty sleepy, but Geno stood up.  
“Thank you for the wonderful meal, but it’s time we got going to Bowser’s Keep,” he said.  
“Are you sure you’d rather not go there tomorrow morning?” Queen Nimbus asked.  
“As much as I’d otherwise like to, I think Geno has made some pretty good points. It’s best we’d get in there tonight,” Mario said.  
“Well, if you must,” King Nimbus said. “We’ll take you to the royal bus now.”  
King and Queen Nimbus led the group out of the palace and past Garro’s studio to reach a small platform.  
“Your majesties! What can we do for you this evening?” the repair man bowed and asked the king and queen.  
“Could you please take Mario and his friends down to Bowser’s Keep? It’s very important that they reach it,” said King Nimbus.  
“It won’t be a problem at all, sire!” the royal bus driver, a large lakitu, said. “Hop aboard!”  
While Mario and the others were boarding the royal bus Mallow hugged his parents.  
“Please be careful, and do whatever you can to help. Wishes must be returned to the world!” Queen Nimbus said.  
“As soon as you’ve finished we’ll be sure to pick you up. Good luck, we believe in you!” King Nimbus said.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down!” Mallow said and climbed onto the royal bus. As soon as he got settled down the bus rose up from the platform and soared away into the night sky. Past Bean Valley, past Barrel Volcano, they headed onward to Bowser’s Keep.  
“Where should I put you down?” the bus driver asked as they started getting close. Mallow looked over and saw the giant sword was watching them.  
“Better put us by the front door, but fly low in case they start opening fire,” Mario said, noticing bill blasters sticking out of the upper windows. The royal bus swooped low and hovered above the solid ground next to the front door.  
“Good luck with your task!” the royal bus driver said as they jumped off.  
“See you soon!” Mallow called out as the bus took off again for Nimbus Land.  
“Ah, the scent of boiling lava…!” Bowser took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s so nice to be home! Smithy’s gonna pay for stealing my splendid castle from me! And those kids-”  
“We know, grounded for six months, we get it,” Mario said as they walked in the front door.  
“This is weird,” Mallow said. “I never imagined I’d come here, let alone be invited willingly by Bowser,”  
“I know what you mean,” Toadstool said. “Coming here willingly is so bizarre,”  
A couple of green goombas jumped from behind statues of Bowser just up ahead and growled.  
“You aren’t welcome, this is Smithy’s-Buh-bowser?! I, er, uh, what?!” the goombas panicked and collided into each other, knocking themselves out. The green coloring faded back to their usual light brown.  
“Buncha traitors! Too scared to fight their king and they’d better be!” Bowser growled angrily.  
“I don’t think they willingly became traitors,” Geno said as he examined the unconscious goombas. “I think your troops were brainwashed by Smithy, but poorly and that’s why they freaked out when they saw you.”  
“How dare he do that!” Bowser yelled. “No wonder I had to get better troops!”  
Bowser led them down the corridors and through the rooms. Everywhere they went odd-colored enemies scattered at the sight of their former leader. Mallow thought they were making good progress, until they came into a room with six doors lined up on one side.  
“What?! I didn’t put this here! Smithy can’t have my castle redecorated without my say so!”  
“What is this, anyways?” Mario asked.  
“Welcome to Smithy’s Super Door Challenge!” a green hammer bro. announced. “I’m your host, Dr. Topper!”  
“That’s great, but you didn’t tell us what the Super Door Challenge is,” Geno said.  
“Smithy’s Super Door Challenge is quite simple! The rules are as follows: each contestant picks a door! On the other side there will be a series of challenges for the contestant to get past! Contestants who make it through not only can progress further into the castle but win a prize! Contestants who can’t make it through, well, better luck next time! Let Smithy’s Super Door Challenge begin!”  
“So, we just pick a door and go through? That doesn’t sound so bad,” Mario said.  
“Do you really think we’ll be alright by ourselves?” Toadstool asked.  
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Geno said. “We have to get the Star Piece!”  
Mario went through the door on the far left. Toadstool chose the door third from the right. Mallow decided to go through the door on the far right while Geno and Bowser were still deciding.  
It was dark when Mallow first entered, but as soon as the door behind him closed the lights snapped on. Mallow saw that he was on a platform perched high above lava. A door lay on the far side of the room. A series of small platforms moving up and down was the only way to cross.  
“Oh no, I can’t jump! Let me out, I want a different door!” Mallow said, but the door had sealed tight. What am I going to do?! I know everyone’s counting on me, but how am I going to do this? Mallow gulped. Okay Mallow. Just take it one jump at a time.  
Mallow stepped onto the first platform and waited carefully. When his platform was at the peak of its height Mallow jumped down to the next platform. Slowly Mallow repeated this for every platform in the room until at last he made it to the far side.  
In the next room the next door was on a high ledge, way too high for Mallow to jump to on his own. A bouncy ball stood before him. So…I guess I ride the ball to the other side? I guess that’s not so bad, Mallow thought as he climbed onto the ball. As soon as he started moving a couple of bob-ombs fell from the ceiling and started walking around.  
Crap! I can’t let them pop the ball! But how do I control this thing?! Mallow was rolling erratically all over the place. The bob-ombs tried to chase him, but seemed confused by his movements. Eventually Mallow got close enough to the ledge that he could bounce off the wall and onto solid ground.  
“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Mallow yelled when he stepped into the next room. Inside there was more lava, more moving platforms, except these rotated slowly around the room.  
Deep breath. One platform at a time. I have to do this. Mallow stepped on the first platform and gulped. Just as the next one made its closest approach Mallow jumped and just made it onto the platforms; the distance between them was just barely within his limits. I need to start practicing jumping, Mallow thought as he jumped to the next platform. And maybe start working out, too. I know I’m pretty good with my magic, but what if my magic alone can’t save me someday? I should be more like Mario, or Geno.  
Mallow made another jump. I’m almost there. I can do it! Mallow took a deep breath and made the last jump onto solid ground! Yes! I hope the next room isn’t too terrible, Mallow thought as he walked in. It was small and empty except for a pair of cymbals on the ground.  
“Alright, I made it!” Mallow jumped up and down and picked up the cymbals. “Sonic Cymbals” was engraved on them. So I guess they send out a powerful soundwave? Sounds useful! Mallow took the cymbals and stepped through the next door, only to step out into midair and fall down into the next room.  
“Mallow! Thank the stars you’re okay!” Mario said. “You were taking so long we were afraid you couldn’t get through.”  
“It was really hard! But I made it and got a new weapon to use!”  
“So did the rest of us,” Geno said. “I have to say the prizes Dr. Topper mentioned are much more useless than I expected!”  
“Do you need to rest before we move on?” Toadstool asked, but Mallow shook his head.  
“No, I took long enough already. Let’s keep going,” Mallow said. Inside the next room a lone magikoopa waited for them. He was wearing red robes instead of the usual blue.  
“This…is…Smithy’s castle. No trespassers allowed!” the magikoopa spoke and started shooting colorful blasts of magic from his wand.  
“Kamek! Not you too!” Bowser exclaimed.  
Mario kicked his new, massive, lazy shell into Kamek, knocking him flat on his back. Toadstool took the opportunity to smack Kamek on his head with her frying pan. Kamek’s robes faded from red back into blue before getting up again.  
“Huh…? Bowser’s Keep? And Bowser, hello! I…seem to have made it back here somehow, but I don’t remember anything! Have I done anything wrong?” Kamek asked as he rubbed the back of his head.  
“Uh, don’t worry about it,” Bowser said. “It’s always great to run into a loyal member of the Koopa Troop!”  
“I see you made some excellent additions to the Koopa Troop!” Kamek said. “Here, let me do something to help you! Ho’okalakupua!” Kamek pointed his wand at the group and fired off a powerful spell. Mallow cringed, expecting to be hit by an attack, but nothing seemed to happen, until he realized everyone’s clothes had changed.  
“Smithy will have a hard time hurting you with these clothes! Good luck!”  
Bowser led the group down another corridor and through a large door. Inside was Bowser’s throne room. Just as they walked in a chandelier being held up by a shy guy lowered itself to the ground.  
“Ah, so you are the notorious Mario!” a voice called down from above. Mallow looked up and saw a steel samurai stood on his own chandelier. “I’m impressed you made it this far. But this is the end of the line, if you dare to try!”  
“You can’t stop us!” Mario said as they climbed onto the chandelier. Once they were all on it the shy guy, and the chandelier, rose back into the air.  
“Then it is here that you shall be defeated by Boomer! En garde!” Boomer unsheathed his katana and took a slashing leap at the group before jumping back to his own chandelier. Mallow smashed his sonic cymbals together to send a soundwave at Boomer that briefly set him off balance, giving Mario the opportunity to start jumping on his head.  
While Mario jumped on Boomer Geno flipped open his arm and shot stars at Boomer. Boomer leapt at Geno to slash him with his sword. Although this movement caused Mario to fall off Bowser and Toadstool were given the opportunity to claw and smack Boomer respectively.  
Boomer leapt back to his own chandelier as Mallow was charging energy. “I won’t fail Smithy!” flowed into his mind before Mallow sent shocker on Boomer as Geno shot more stars at him.  
“Argh! This can’t be! I can’t be defeated by them! I won’t let this happen! I won’t fall in battle…,” Boomer groaned and grabbed his chest. “H-having an attack…!”  
“Are you alright?” Mario asked.  
“S-shut up! I don’t need your sympathy! I’m a soldier…I’ll choose how I go…!” Boomer jabbed the shy guy holding up his chandelier. The shy guy immediately dropped the chandelier and Boomer fell down to the throne room.  
“Oh no, Boomer!” the chandeli-ho that dropped the chandelier exclaimed. “Poor Boomer…. But don’t worry Boomer, a little fall won’t hurt you!” he called down to Boomer.  
“That was…what just happened?” Geno asked.  
“I have no idea!” Mallow said.  
“Alright, you guys!” the chandeli-ho holding their chandelier spoke. “I’ll take you to the top. Hold on tight, here we go!”  
The chandeli-ho started to rise faster and faster, taking them with him. When they reached the top they were flung off the chandelier, through a window, and on top one of the castle walls.  
“We can get closer to that dumb sword than this! Come on!” Bowser said and ran over to the nearest tower, the rest of the group close behind. Bowser flung open the door; everybody dashed up the stairs, through another door, and came out on top of the tower right next to the sword!  
“So! You managed to find a way here even though I took out the bridge!” the sword spoke. “But you’ll never reach Smithy. I, Exor, won’t let my master down!” Geno took a few steps forwards. Mallow stepped back a little. Even though they were on the same side the rage coming from Geno was frightening.  
“Exor!” Geno shouted. “Even if we don’t reach Smithy, I’ll still make you pay for destroying the Star Road! This is on behalf of all of Star Haven!” Geno shot a beam of light into the air and it rained down on Exor as Geno Blast.  
Exor didn’t say anything. Instead he started casting spells at the group, bombarding them with fireballs, chunks of ice, flashes of light, and electricity that even Mallow had to admit actually hurt.  
“We’ve gotta block his vision,” Mario said as he kicked the lazy shell into one of Exor’s eyes while Toadstool healed the group. “Then maybe he’ll miss some attacks!”  
“Then how will we see him?!” Bowser yelled as he leapt onto Exor to claw him several times before leaping back to the tower.  
“He’s stationary, we’re not!” Geno fired stars into Exors eyes. “We don’t have to see him to know he’s there!”  
“I’ve got it, just leave it to me!” Mallow started charging up energy. “This world is ours!” flowed into his mind as Mallow unleashed snowy on Exor. Thick snowflakes quickly whirled around his eyes and the magic attacks started flying past the tower.  
Mario took the opportunity to leap into the blizzard to jump on top of the hilt several times. Toadstool, who had a break from healing for a moment, used her magic to instead create a bob-omb she tossed at the sword. Geno shot stars into the swirling snow before using Geno Blast again.  
The giant snowman formed and exploded, freeing Exor’s vision again. Once again Exor created an onslaught of magic directed towards the group. Mario shot large fireballs back at Exor while Bowser slashed at him again. Mallow charged up energy again. “No! I can’t let them beat me!” flowed into his mind and Mallow unleashed snowy a second time.  
“Get him, guys!” Mallow said as the attacks shot past the tower again. “I think we’re weakening him!”  
Mario repeatedly kicked his lazy shell into the blizzard while Geno fired several Geno Whirls into it. Toadstool finished healing and created another magical bob-ombs she threw into the snow. Mallow tried to keep the snow swirling for as long as he could but once again it condensed into the snowman and exploded.  
“Maybe this will finish him!” Geno said and transformed into the same cannon as before. Beam energy charged and Geno sent out a sun-shaped blast into Exor.  
Exor’s pupils turned into swirls and tears formed in his eyes. Without saying anything his mouth opened wide, and sucked the entire group right in! Mallow screamed with the others as he found himself falling into darkness somewhere. The darkness seemed to lessen slightly and suddenly they found themselves back on solid ground.  
“W-where are we?” Mallow asked as he looked around. They appeared to be at the start of an old stone path that seemed to be hovering in mid-air. Mist swirled around them. Mallow shivered; something about this place was a lot less friendly than Bowser’s Keep.  
“…Another dimension. Where Smithy resides and all the weapons we’ve fought were made,” Geno answered.  
“This is a completely different universe? And it fits inside Exor’s mouth?” Toadstool asked.  
“I don’t think it’s in Exor’s mouth so much as the mouth contains a portal that we forced ourselves into,” Geno said.  
“So, if Smithy’s in here somewhere, then we need to start looking,” said Mario.  
“Just a minute! I only joined so I could get my castle back. I’m not going along on your stupid hunt!” Bowser said. “I’m going to go back, get my troops, and start working on repairs. And you four, as official members of the Koopa Troop, are required to help! Go beat Smithy if you want, but when you come back out again I’m putting you all to work right away!”  
“Bowser, you’re completely missing something!” Geno laughed.  
“You…! I oughta rip your stuffing out!” Bowser growled.  
“Why don’t you think first? Exor connects Smithy’s world and ours, right?”  
“Yeah, so what?”  
“Even though we’ve defeated Exor he’s still standing and functioning as a portal. And he’s located in your castle. And with all the members of the Smithy Gang we’ve beaten, Smithy will be sure to send more through to our world. Right back into your castle! Do you really want that?” Geno explained. Bowser looked surprised and quickly turned around.  
“Really, he has to think about this one too?” Geno whispered.  
“Yes,” Mario and Toadstool said in unison.  
“No one insults the Koopa Troop and gets away with it!” Bowser said at last, turning back to them. “Smithy damaged my castle and took it over, and he’s gonna pay for that! Come on! Let’s show him what we’re made of!”  
The group set off down the nearly featureless path. As they walked the occasional distant sounds of hammers and machinery could be heard. After they had walked for several minutes a giant alarm clocked loomed out of the mist. As soon as it caught sight of the group it started ringing its bells furiously.  
“Oh no, now they know we’re here!” Mallow said.  
“Let’s shut it down as fast as we can!” Geno said and fired Geno Blast at it. The hands on the alarm clock spun and stopped at five o’clock. When it did it used an attack similar to Geno Blast on the group.  
As Toadstool healed the group Mario kicked the lazy shell into count down while Bowser furiously clawed it. The clock hands spun and stopped at twelve o’clock. Count down fired a beam of light at Bowser and Mario, knocking them back.  
“Stupid clock, why don’t you chill out?!” Mallow yelled and charged up energy. “Must warn Smithy!” flowed into his mind and Mallow unleashed snowy on count down. The clock hands spun around again and stopped at one o’clock. Count down spat a large chunk of ice into Mallow, knocking him back as well.  
While Toadstool healed the others again Geno fired stars at count down before shooting it with Geno Whirl. Once again the clock hands spun around, this time stopping at seven o’clock. Count down started to form a ball of water between its two bells. Geno shot the water with a quick Geno Beam, and the water blast exploded on count down, destroying the two bells.  
Count down started spinning its hands at a furious rate. Mallow sent soundwaves at it using his sonic cymbals while Mario kicked his lazy shell into it. Count down shook for a few seconds before exploding.  
“I wish we could’ve gone a little farther before Smithy found out we’re here,” Toadstool said as they set off again.  
“He would’ve found out eventually. I’m actually surprised it took us this long to meet anything in here,” Mario said.  
“Most of them are probably working in the factory,” Geno said, referring to the distant sounds of machinery.  
Up ahead conveyer belts started to materialize out of the mist. Mallow recognized one line of enemies as shysters, but not the other, which resembled a drill with feet and eyes. Ducking under the conveyer belts and continuing on the group encountered another conveyer belt.  
“Mack!” Mallow exclaimed when an unpainted Mack the Knife rolled down the belt. Hearing Mallow Mack leapt off the belt and started spitting fireballs at the group. Mallow quickly charged and unleashed thunderbolt while Mario kicked his lazy shell into it. Mack immediately exploded.  
“Looks like Smithy is doing more than just mass-producing small enemies,” Mario noted as another unpainted Mack rolled by. “Even as just cheap copies these things could overrun any town or village easily!”  
“There’s more, look!” Geno said. Mallow looked around and could see more conveyor belts around them carrying not only Bowyer and Yaridovich in addition to Mack, but all five of the Axem Rangers as well.  
“How are we supposed to fight all of these, even if they are cheap copies?!” Bowser exclaimed.  
“We don’t,” Mario said. “We gotta save our energy for the big enemies, not to mention Smithy!”  
“How do we get to the factory, though?” Mallow asked. “The path doesn’t seem to follow the belts.”  
“It has to go somewhere towards there,” Geno said. “Bowyer and the others didn’t fly out of here, after all.”  
Mario passed out mushrooms and maple syrups to eat as they walked. The path turned and started moving parallel alongside the conveyer belts. The factory sounds became constant, and grew louder by the minute. Up ahead the path suddenly came to a halt, and there was a large hole in the ground.  
“You gotta be kidding! All that walk for a dead end?!” Bowser exclaimed.  
“It’s not like there were other paths for us to take. It must continue on down below,” Mario said and jumped down the hole. “It’s okay, it’s solid ground!” he called back up. One by one they jumped down the hole. The noises were much louder down there.  
“We can’t be far now,” Geno said. “Keep your guard up in case we’re ambushed.”  
“You mean like you are right now?!” two voices cackled and leapt out at them. They turned out to be floating members of the Smithy Gang. One looked like a jester while the other resembled a flamboyant swordsman.  
“Mwee hee hee! They walked right into our trap, Domino!” the one with a sword and shield said.  
“Hee hee hee! We get to have fun and please Smithy, Cloaker!” the one wearing a cape said.  
“He won’t be very pleased when we get past you!” Mario kicked his lazy shell into Cloaker. Bowser rushed at Cloaker and clawed at him while Geno shot Geno Beam at him. Cloaker slashed at Mario, and tried to block Geno Beam with his shield, only for it to be shattered when he tried.  
Mallow started charging energy, focusing it on Cloaker. “I’ll take them out for Smithy!” flowed into his mind and Mallow unleashed snowy on him. Cloaker seemed disoriented by the attack and Mario took the chance to jump on him. Cloaker screamed and exploded.  
“Oh no! I can’t be defeated by such weaklings, I should warn Smithy instead…!” Domino fled from the group.  
“Oh no you don’t!” Mario said and they chased after Domino. Domino seemed to have vanished, until he appeared out of the mist on an enormous cobra!”  
“It’s clobbering time!” Domino yelled and blasted the group with shards of ice in a blizzard attack. While Toadstool healed the group Mallow used his sonic cymbals to send soundwaves at Domino and the cobra. The cobra recoiled from the soundwaves, giving Bowser an opportunity to claw both Domino and the cobra.  
Domino blasted Bowser with an electrical attack, briefly stunning him. While Domino was stunning Bowser Mario kicked his lazy shell into Domino while Geno shot stars at him. The cobra hissed and spat boulders at the group before hitting them with a sandstorm.  
While Toadstool healed the group Mallow sent several more soundwaves at the unusual duo, which caused the cobra to stop attacking again. Mario kicked the lazy shell into the cobra before leaping up and jumping on Domino’s head. The cobra’s eyes rolled back into its head and collapsed as Domino screamed before both of them exploded moments later.  
“Man, Smithy keeps a lot of freaks in here!” Bowser said. “What else is he hiding in here?!”  
“I don’t think a whole lot more,” Mario said, noticing a metal archway just beyond where Domino had been. The factory noises were extremely loud now. Mario led the group past the archway and into the factory. In here everything was made out of metal. More of the drill enemies passed by on the closest assembly line.  
“Production is on schedule?” an armored knight serving as a clerk asked some hammers.  
“Correct, sir,” one of the hammers said.  
“Excellent. Despite the fact that Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, and the Axem Rangers were all destroyed we’ll still be able to rebuild the army and stay on schedule.”  
“Why are you making more weapons?! Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?” Mallow blurted out.  
“Oh yeah?!” the clerk said as he turned to the group, brandishing his ax. “Who do you think you are, making a bold statement like that?!”  
“I’m Mario, and we came here to shut down your operation!” Mario answered, stepping forward.  
“We’ll see about that. Mad mallets; help me take down these intruders!”  
The mad mallets rushed at the group. Mallow quickly charged and unleashed thunderbolt on the mad mallets, defeating them in an instant. Mario meanwhile kicked the lazy shell into the clerk while Geno shot him with stars. The clerk fell back and exploded.  
“Wow, he was a lot weaker than count down and Domino and Cloaker!” Toadstool said.  
“The other factory staff might not be as weak, though,” Geno pointed out.  
“Hey look, a switch,” Mallow said. “Let’s see what it does!”  
“Ah, no, Mallow I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Geno said as Mallow hopped onto the switch.  
“It’s okay Geno, nothing’s happening anyways,” said Mallow. A crane moved in behind Mallow and started lowering itself.  
“Mallow, behind you!” Mario exclaimed.  
“You’re just trying to make me look, Mario! Well, I’m not going to fall for it!” Mallow said and laughed. The crane grabbed Mallow and started lifting him up. “M-Mario! Help me!”  
“I gotcha!” Mario jumped up, grabbed Mallow’s hand, and pulled him free from the crane’s grasp.  
“Phew, that was a close one!”  
“Keep that in mind next time you see things like that, then,” Geno said as they continued on. Up ahead the drills were being painted. Next to the painting mechanism was another knight, and more hammers.  
“Here’s the report, manager!” one of the hammers said. “Drill Bit will be finished on time! And we’re moving ahead of schedule now! We’ll make Smithy proud!”  
“Good work, pounders! The harder we work, the stronger the Smithy Gang becomes! Just think…with the weapons we make, Smithy will be able to conquer Mario’s weak world! And then we can do whatever we want!” the manager said. The manager and the pounders started laughing.  
“Not so fast!” Bowser said, stepping forward. “I rule this world and don’t you forget it! I’ll take down you cocky losers!”  
“It’s Mario!” the manager turned and said. “Count down, Cloaker and Domino didn’t stop him?!”  
“I’m the one you need to worry about, not him!” Bowser yelled.  
“This is it for you, Mario!” the manager said.  
“Stop ignoring me!” Bowser shouted and clawed the manager as Mallow charged and took out the group of pounders with thunderbolt. The manager swiped at Bowser with his ax, but Bowser didn’t flinch and kept clawing the manager. The manager yelled and exploded.  
“Hmmph!” Bowser crossed his arms. “Like the moon over the day, my genius and brawn are lost on these fools!”  
Continuing up the assembly line the shape of the drills was being refined by hammers. Here another knight watched the drills go by, but he turned and looked at the group when they came up.  
“You there! Are you the director? Don’t you know what terrible things have been happening since you started sending weapons into our world?” Toadstool asked. “Stop all of this right now!  
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible,” the director said. “Any dissent against Smithy is dealt with by immediate melt down.”  
“M-melt down?!” Toadstool exclaimed and backed up a little. “You can’t scare me, I’ve got Mario by my side!”  
“Dissenters will be eliminated! Production will continue!” the director said and charged at the group with some poundettes. Mallow sent soundwaves at them using his sonic cymbals, briefly stunning all of them. While they were stunned Mallow charged and unleashed thunderbolt on the poundettes, taking them out.  
Toadstool took advantage of the stunned director to give him several whacks with her frying pan. Geno shot stars at the director while Mario kicked his lazy shell into the director. The director stumbled back and exploded.  
“This is getting really scary!” Toadstool said. “But I’m not going to run away now! We have to kick these lowlifes out of our world!”  
“We will,” Mario reassured her. “Smithy will regret he ever invaded our world!”  
Continuing a little farther ahead the path came to an end. Waiting there was a ninja with an odd tank-like machine.  
“So, you must be Mario and his friends,” the ninja said. “I’m surprised you made it this far! But this is as close as you’ll ever get to Smithy. As the factory chief I’ll eliminate you using my amazing invention, the gunyolk!”  
“We’ll see about that!” Geno said and fired Geno Blast at the factory chief and the gunyolk. The factory chief stumbled slightly and started throwing knives at the group. While Mario kicked his lazy shell at the factory chief Bowser clawed the gunyolk.  
Mallow started charging up energy. “We won’t let Smithy down!” flowed into his mind and Mallow brought shocker down on gunyolk. Gunyolk adjusted its twin cannons slightly and fired a beam blast into the group not unlike the one Blade had used with the Axem Rangers.  
“We gotta take down that gunyolk!” Mario said as Toadstool healed them.  
“I don’t think Geno Flash will work on it the way I was able to take out Blade with it,” Geno said. “We’ll just have to find a way to wear it down.”  
The factory chief started throwing knives again. Mario leapt over the knives and started jumping on the factory chief’s head while Bowser furiously clawed the gunyolk again. Geno fired Geno Whirl into it and Mallow used his sonic cymbals to send soundwaves at both gunyolk and the factory chief.  
The gunyolk adjusted its cannons and fired the beam again. There has to be a way to get to it, Mallow thought as Toadstool healed everyone again. Maybe if I use snowy I can freeze the parts and damage it that way. Mallow started charging up energy again. “They won’t take us down!” flowed into his mind and Mallow unleashed snowy, concentrating as much of it as he could on the gunyolk. To his surprise the gunyolk started cracking in several places, particularly on the cannons.  
“Of course! That beam must really heat the metal up!” Mario said and kicked his lazy shell into the gunyolk.  
“I don’t get it, does that mean something?”  
“If hot metal is cooled too quickly it gets damaged,” Mario explained. “If it fires that beam again, use snowy on it!”  
“Got it!” Mallow sent more soundwaves at gunyolk and the factory chief. Geno fired shooting stars at the cracks on gunyolk while Bowser clawed at the factory chief, for a change. Mario kicked his lazy shell into the gunyolk again just as the cannons started to adjust and fired the beam.  
Mallow started charging energy before the beam had even fired. “No! We can’t fail Smithy!” flowed into Mallow’s mind as the beam fired, but Mallow didn’t lose his concentration. As soon as the beam stopped, before Toadstool could even start healing, Mallow unleashed snowy on the gunyolk a second time. Larger cracks formed all over gunyolk as it shook and exploded.  
“N-no! How could we fail Smithy?!” the factory chief wailed and exploded as well.  
“This is the end of the line, but I don’t see that jerk Smithy anywhere!” Bowser said as Toadstool healed the group.  
“The weapons are coming out up there,” Geno said, nodding to some pipes at the head of the conveyor belts. “If we can get up there, then we can reach the heart of the factory, and Smithy. And then…,” Geno closed his eyes and looked away.  
“Geno? Are you okay? You don’t seem like yourself,” Mallow said.  
“I’m fine,” Geno said and smiled slightly. “Now, how are we going to get up there?”  
“There’s another one of those switches, look,” Toadstool said, pointing to another switch behind where gunyolk and the factory chief were.  
“Then that makes it easier to get up there,” Mario said. “Bowser, you grab onto the crane. Everyone else, grab onto Bowser. Once we’re over the pipe we’ll let go.”  
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Bowser laughed and stepped on the switch. As the craned moved towards them Mallow grabbed onto Bowser with the others. As soon as the crane was low enough Bowser grabbed on. The crane groaned slightly, but rose back up into the air again and towards the pipes.  
“Ready…now!” Mario yelled and everyone let go. Everybody slid down the pipe, knocking freshly made drills out of the way as they went until they shot out the end of the pipe and landed in the very heart of the factory. And the Star Piece was right before them!  
“Hey! There’s the last Star Piece!” Mallow exclaimed before realizing who he was looking at. Smithy had a formidable bearded appearance, but didn’t even look up at the arrival of the heroes.  
“Already finished your tour of my factory, then?” he said as he pounded freshly poured molten metal into brand new drill enemies. “How about I give a demonstration in weapon-making?”  
“Yo, Smithy! Stop making those things and hand over the Star Piece, now!” Geno shouted at Smithy.  
“You’ll regret it if you don’t!” Mario added.  
“Huh?” Smithy said, and then laughed. “So you’re Mario?! Looks like we’re gonna have a little dispute over this star.”  
“Just hand it over and get outta my castle!” Bowser shouted.  
“My, my! Someone’s feeling a little touchy today. I have to say, I’m actually growing rather fond of your castle. I don’t think I want to give up my new base of operations.”  
“Please! Don’t make us go through any more of this! Just give us the Star Piece right now!” Toadstool said.  
“I have a better idea; how about you hand over your stars. And then I can conquer your sad, little world! And once I do I’ll rid it of all wishes forever and rebuild it as a world filled with weapons!”  
“We’re not letting that happen, Smithy!” Mario yelled. “We’re gonna stop you the same way we stopped everyone else you’ve sent into our world!”  
“Oh yeah?! I’ll crush all of you!” Smithy lifted his hammer into the air and a giant sledgehammer somewhere, somehow, dropped from the ceiling and smashed the group. While Toadstool started healing everyone Mario started kicking his lazy shell into Smithy while Bowser clawed him. Geno fired Geno Whirl at him before shooting him with stars.  
Smithy swatted back Bowser with his own hammer and then brought down the giant one again. As Toadstool healed again Mallow started sending soundwaves at Smithy using his sonic cymbals while Mario kicked his lazy shell into Smithy again.  
“Hmph! Let’s see how you fare when I create some assistance?” Smithy turned his attention back to the molten metal that was still being poured out. Smithy pounded it several times, forming it into the shape of a shyster. The newly formed shyper immediately used a magical attack to spit sword-shaped magic at the group.  
“Ignore that shyper, concentrate on Smithy!” Mario said and started jumping on Smithy’s head.  
“Easy for you to say!” Bowser said. Ignoring what Mario said, Bowser started clawing the shyper. Geno alternated between shooting stars at the shyper and Smithy before shooting another Geno Whirl at him.  
“But more metal is being poured! He’ll make more of them!” Mallow said. “Wait, the thing pouring the metal must be hot! I’ll take care of it, guys! Then we can focus on Smithy!” Mallow said and started charging up energy. “Workin’ hard or hardly workin’?” flowed into his mind and Mallow unleashed snowy, focusing it as much as he could onto the smelter. As the snowman exploded outward the smelter cracked and outright shattered!  
“Nooo! How dare you?!” Smithy screamed at the sight of the broken smelter and started smashing the floor in a fit of rage.  
“Calm down, Smithy!” an aero said as it flew down from above. “Your head looks like a geyser!”  
“Don’t get so worked up!” Drill Bit exclaimed as it hopped down. “Think of your blood pressure!”  
“We just built this the other day, and the foundation’s still weak,” a shyster said as it bounced in. “So stop shaking the floor!”  
“How dare any of you talk to me that way!” Smithy swatted them away with his hammer before pounding the floor again. “I created you, and if you don’t show me the respect I deserve I’ll-huh?!” Smithy exclaimed as the floor started shaking before giving way completely. Everyone fell and landed somewhere deep under the factory.  
“You…! I’m burning…seething…! Never have I been so wronged…! It’s time I showed my real form, and show you true power and terror!” Smithy screamed at them. There was a flash of light and Smithy grew larger, and the false hair fell off, revealing that his face, and head, was devoid of all features except for his eyes and mouth.  
“Come on, you puny ants!” Smithy yelled and started pounding his own head with his hammer, reshaping it into that of a tank. Smithy started firing artillery from the tank’s gun while shooting regular bullets from the fingers of his left hand.  
“I’ll show you who’s puny!” Bowser said and started clawing at the tank’s body. Geno fired Geno Blast at Smithy while Mario shot large fireballs at him before jumping on his head.  
Mallow started charging up energy. “They’ll never be able to beat me!” flowed into Mallow’s mind. We’ll see about that! Mallow thought and brought shocker down on Smithy’s tank head. Toadstool healed everyone before giving Smithy a few good smacks on the head with her frying pan.  
Smithy whacked Bowser, Mario and Toadstool away before firing another round of artillery and bullets at everyone. Geno countered with shots of stars before firing Geno Blast again while Mario kicked his lazy shell at Smithy. Mallow charged up more energy. “Is this really the best they can do?” flowed into his mind before he unleashed shocker on Smithy a second time.  
Smithy started pounding his head with his hammer again. His head reshaped into that of a wizard.  
“Let’s see you survive against this!” Smithy yelled and began casting powerful spells causing a rain of magic shaped into swords, arrows, and spears to rain down on the group.  
“Stay back; use your own magic against Smithy if you can!” Mario said and started shooting large fireballs at Smithy.  
“Got it!” Mallow said and started charging up energy again. “I can’t let them get too close with this weak head!” flowed into Mallow’s head, causing him to stop charging at once. “Guys! This is what he wants us to do! His head is really weak behind all that magic! We gotta attack physically!”  
“And how are we supposed to do that against this rain of weapons?!” Bowser asked.  
“You leave that to Mallow and me!” Toadstool said.  
“Come on, let’s get him!” Geno started shooting stars at Smithy through the rain of weapons. Mario and Bowser charged into the heart of the weapon rain, with Bowser clawing Smithy’s head non-stop while Mario kicked his lazy shell into his head several times before leaping up and bouncing on Smithy’s head.  
Mallow quickly charged up and created a healing shower over them while Toadstool’s own healing magic swirled around the group. Combining their magic this way they could barely feel the effects of Smithy’s weapon magic!  
Smithy swatted Mario and Bowser away before reshaping his head again. This time he, somehow, used his head to seal his head into a mask or vault.  
“No good, I don’t think we can do too much damage to him in this form,” Geno said as Smithy didn’t seem to react to being shot with stars.  
“…Yes there is,” Mario said and turned to Mallow. “Mallow, I’m going to shoot him with fireballs until he’s red hot! And once he is, use snowy to damage his defenses! And then we’ll all attack while he’s wide open!”  
“You can count on me!” Mallow said.  
Mario turned to Smithy and started shooting large fireballs into his head nonstop. Mallow started charging up energy. “They can’t get me like this!” flowed into his mind, but Mallow held back. Smithy’s quickly started to glow, and as soon as it was bright red Mallow unleashed snowy on Smithy. When snowy cleared fresh cracks were revealed in Smithy’s head.  
Bowser charged forward and started clawing the cracks while Geno shot at them. Mallow sent soundwaves at Smithy using his sonic cymbals while Mario started kicking his lazy shell. Even Toadstool had an opportunity to attack and started smacking Smithy with her frying pan.  
“Try all you want, you’ll never stop me!” Smithy yelled as he reshaped his head into a treasure chest. The chest opened and sent out an explosion, knocking everyone back. Smithy then immediately reshaped his head back into the wizard form, but slightly sloppier this time.  
Smithy began shooting out his magical weapon rain again, but this time Mallow and Toadstool got their healing magic going just as Smithy started firing his spells. Mario alternated between kicking his lazy shell and jumping on his head. Bowser furiously clawed the head while Geno got up close for better aiming and shot at Smithy.  
Smithy shot bullets at everyone before roaring and reshaping his head back into a tank, but it took longer and was noticeably sloppier.  
“We’re getting to him!” Mario said as he kicked his lazy shell into the tank head. The tank started shooting artillery as Mallow started charging up energy. “How dare they do this to me!” flowed into his mind and Mallow brought down shocker just as Geno used Geno Blast. Smithy roared and fired bullets at them, leaving him wide open for Bowser to claw him again.  
Mallow again started to charge up more energy. “I won’t let them leave here alive!” flowed into his mind, and Mallow brought down shocker on Smithy once more. Mario kicked his lazy shell into Smithy again and Geno shot stars at him. Smithy roared again and tried to reshape his head, but had a hard time doing so.  
“We’ve got to finish him off!” Mario said. “Bowser, claw him as much as you possibly can! Toadstool, go with Bowser and keep him healed; if you have an opening to attack, take it!”  
“Leave it to me!” Bowser said and charged at Smithy, with Toadstool close behind him.  
“The rest of us, we’re going to use our magic,” Mario said turning to Mallow and Geno. “Put everything you can into this, and we’ll attack together!”  
“Right!” Geno said and started turning into the cannon.  
“We got this!” Mallow said and started charging energy like he never had before, going beyond what he charged up for Valentina. For Mom, Dad, and all of Nimbus Land, this is for you!  
“NOW!” Mario yelled and started firing massive fireballs at Smithy. Geno fired his Geno Flash yet. Mallow unleashed his energy, but it didn’t come down as shocker, and it wasn’t even snowy. It was stars, shooting stars that came crashing down onto Smithy and combining with the force of everyone else’s attacks.  
“Noooo! E-everything’s burning and falling apart! It’s…not…possible! How could I possibly lose?!” Smithy screamed and exploded in a bright flash of light. For a moment Mallow was afraid it destroyed the Star Piece as well, but when the light faded it was gently floating before them.  
“Come on, Mario! Reclaim that Star Piece for our world!” Geno said.  
“You bet!” Mario said and walked forward. Just like the other six, the last Star Piece circled around them healing all of their injuries before at last falling into Mario’s hands.  
“Thank you, everyone!” Geno said as he stepped forwards and looked around at everyone. “The Star Road can finally be repaired. But, now-”  
Before Geno could finish, all seven Star Pieces suddenly surrounded him. Flashing rapidly they started to circle around Geno. Geno closed his eyes and held out his arms. As the Star Pieces began to circle faster Geno slowly started to rotate, but quickly gained speed. One by one the Star Pieces flew up and away, and a pillar of light surrounded Geno. The pillar flashed brightly before quickly fading away, and only Gaz’s Geno doll remained.  
“Geno…?” Mario said as they surrounded the lifeless doll.  
“N-no…Geno…!” Mallow said and shut his eyes tight as tears formed in them. Toadstool sadly lowered her head. Even Bowser seemed sad.  
“Why are you all so sad? I’m not dead, you know!” a familiar voice spoke. Mallow opened his eyes; a tiny star with a face floated above the doll.  
“G-Geno…?!”  
“Don’t be sad now,” the star said as he flew around and gently touched each of their hands. “I’ll always be your friend, and I’ll watch over all of you forever. I promise.”  
The star circled around them one last time before flying away after the Star Pieces. Despite what he had said, Mallow was certain he saw tears streaking down the star’s face as he flew away.  
Everything around the rest of the group faded, and quite suddenly they were back in the night air across from Bowser’s Keep. Mallow looked up and saw a flash high in the sky as a star burst into existence. Almost immediately shooting stars began to radiate away from the star and all across the sky. Mallow smiled; he had a feeling Star Hill, and Shooting Star Summit, and the rest of the locations with direct connections to Star Haven were being lit up brilliantly as wishes were finally granted again.  
“H-hey…!” Bowser exclaimed and Mallow looked back down again; Exor was rapidly disintegrating before their eyes. The last traces of the sword, and the Smithy Gang vanished, and seconds later the rising sun came over the horizon, illuminating the land. It was almost as though nothing bad had ever happened.


	9. Prince Mallow Nimbus

“Hmmph. I don’t need you three to help with repairs,” Bowser said after a few moments.  
“Er, what?” Mario said.  
“You heard me! I got enough bumbling troops without you three getting in the way as well. Hah, looks like my ride is nearly here!”  
Mallow looked and saw Bowser’s famous clown copter coming this way. At first it looked like it was on some sort of autopilot, but then Mallow saw seven heads poking over the rim.  
“They sure got a lot of nerve coming to get me themselves! As soon as they land-”  
“Yes, we know. Come on, let’s get going,” Mario picked up the Geno doll and started down the path leading away from Bowser’s Keep with Toadstool and Mallow.  
“How come you’re coming with us, Mallow?” Toadstool asked. “Aren’t you going to wait there for the royal bus?”  
“Well, I need to go to Tadpole Pond first. I have to see Grandpa, and get my things before going home,” Mallow explained.  
“We can walk together then,” Mario said. “I need to go to Rose Town and return this to Gaz. I just hope he’s…accepting about the whole thing.”  
“I’ll pass on that, if you don’t mind,” Toadstool said yawning. “I’m so exhausted after all that! This time I really am going to go upstairs and lay down!”  
“I’ll come by later in the afternoon, or maybe tomorrow. Once the chancellor finds out we stopped Smithy and repaired the Star Road I’m sure he’ll want to plan a big public holiday,” Mario said. When they reached the front gate of the Mushroom Kingdom town Mallow stopped Toadstool before she could head up to her castle.  
“I really want to thank you not only for your help, but for being an amazing princess. You set the bar really high, and I hope someday I can live up to your example as a prince!” Mallow said.  
“But you already do! Just keep being yourself and everything will be fine. Goodbye, Mallow,” Toadstool bent down and hugged him. “Tell your parents I’ll send a letter soon so we can arrange a formal alliance between our kingdoms!”  
“I will!” Mallow waved goodbye before turning to Mario.  
“Hey, Mario, I have an idea before we get going again. Do you happen have any Frog Coins?”  
“Yeah, there were some in that sack Booster gave us. Why?” Mallow told Mario what he had in mind; Mario smiled. “That’s a great idea!”  
After a quick stop in the Mushroom Kingdom shop once again with Mario down to Tadpole Pond. When they reached the pipe to Kero Sewers they ignored it, taking the long down. Just before they reached Tadpole Pond Mallow stopped Mario as well.  
“Mario, I want to thank you, too,” Mallow said. “I’ve gotten braver and more confidant searching for the Star Pieces, and learned to do things I didn’t even know I could do. Before I left Tadpole Pond if you told me I was a prince I’d have felt completely unfit for the task. But now, I know I can do it.”  
“Take care, Mallow,” Mario shook his hand. “Someday, somewhere, I’m sure we’ll meet again.”  
“Really? Promise?”  
“Promise!”  
Mallow watched Mario head down Rose Way for a few moments before turning and heading towards the pond. When Mallow got to the break in the trees he could see Frogfucius sitting at the table with some cricket tea.  
“Grandpa!” Mallow exclaimed and swam to the island. “We got the Star Pieces and found my family! I come from Nimbus Land; my parents are the king and queen!”  
“You, what?! Mallow, in ten years I never once guessed you’re a prince! Congratulations on finding your family and stopping Smithy! But if you’ve found your family, what are you doing back here?” Frogfucius asked.  
“I had to tell you, of course! And, well, if I’m going to live in Nimbus Land I want to take my things with me, if that’s okay,” Mallow said.  
“Of course it is! By the way, perhaps you can clear something up for me,” Frogfucius said as Mallow started gathering his belongings.  
“What is it?”  
“A woman from the sky landed on Booster’s Tower with a large bird yesterday, and has agreed to marry Booster. Do you know anything about that?” Mallow started to laugh. Frogfucius tilted his head.  
“That’s…oh wow! Valentina was trying to take over Nimbus Land, but flew away with Dodo after I stopped her. What she did was unforgivable, but with Booster, well, maybe she can change for the better!”  
“H-hey! What’s that?!” Lakitu pointed up in the sky. Mallow looked up; the royal bus was making a landing approach over the pond.  
“It’s my parents!” Mallow exclaimed. When the bus landed at the edge of the island Mallow rushed over to it. “Mom! Dad!”  
“Mallow, thank the stars!” Queen Nimbus said as she got down from the royal bus. “You never returned from Bowser’s Keep last night and this morning the sword had vanished!”  
“We went to the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Toadstool told us where she could find you,” King Nimbus said. “So, I take it this is the Frogfucius you said raised you?”  
“Yeah, this is Grandpa! Grandpa, this is my mom and dad!”  
“I gathered as such, young grasshopper. It’s truly a pleasure to meet you.” Frogfucius said.  
“Thank you so much for taking in Mallow. From the bottom of our hearts we’ll always be grateful for what you did,” Queen Nimbus said.  
“I only did the right thing. It would have been cruel to just let him float away with no one to care for him. Raising Mallow has been a pleasure,” Frogfucius said.  
“Ready to head home now, Mallow?” King Nimbus asked.  
“Y-yeah,” Mallow said, a lump forming in his throat. For all that he had wished to be with his parents again, and the joy at being reunited with them at long last, knowing that he was leaving Tadpole Pond, and Frogfucius, forever truly hurt. “Grandpa, I know I said I wasn’t gonna cry anymore but…right now it’s really, really hard,” Mallow shut his eyes tight as tears formed in them.  
“Mallow, it’s at times like these when it’s always acceptable to cry,” Frogfucious said. Mallow opened his eyes and saw tears rolling down the old frog’s cheeks. Lip trembling, Mallow ran into his arms and a light downpour started to fall.  
“I’ll never, ever, ever forget you, Grandpa,” Mallow said.  
“And I won’t forget you, Mallow.”  
“C-can I come back and visit sometime?”  
“Of course! You are always welcome at Tadpole Pond, young grasshopper. But don’t dwell on this place too much; you need to enjoy living in your real home. Be brave, now,” Frogfucius said.  
“I almost forgot,” Mallow wiped his eyes and pulled out a jar. “This is a going away present from me!”  
“Cricket jam! How…? Thank you.”  
“G-goodbye Grandpa. I’ll come visit soon!” Mallow waved before climbing aboard the royal bus with his parents as the clouds slowly parted again. As they took off into the air exhaustion finally hit Mallow and he dozed off as the royal bus headed for Nimbus Land.  
________________________________________  
“Citizens of Nimbus Land!” King Nimbus called out to the crowd gathered around the palace entrance. “Eleven years ago my wife and I became parents after wishing to have a child for several years. But hardly a year later tragedy struck, and our child was kidnapped. For years we wished to his return, and at long last, in our kingdom’s darkest hour our wish came true! This day has been coming for a long time. Introducing…Prince Mallow Nimbus!”  
The crowd erupted in cheers as Mallow stepped forward and knelt before his parents. His father attached a new pink cape to his shoulders before placing a silver crown upon Mallow’s head.  
“Mallow Nimbus, may you uphold our kingdom and rule fairly, kindly, and set a fine example to our people!”  
Mallow stood up and looked out to the cheering crowd.  
“I’ve only lived here a few days, so everything here is new to me. But I promise to live up to the name of my ancestors. I’m going to work hard, and do everything I can to protect Nimbus Land again if the need ever arise. My wish is for Nimbus Land to be prosperous and peaceful, and thanks to the efforts of my friends and I, I know this wish will come true!”  
“Fellow citizens! And my king and queen!” Garro called out from the back of the crowd after disappearing for a moment to fetch a cart from his studio. “To celebrate the long awaited return of our prince may I present to you my latest piece; the Heroes of Nimbus Land!” Garro whipped away sheet covering the cart to reveal statues of the whole group, Mario and Toadstool, Bowser, Geno, and of course, Mallow.  
“Oh, I say, well done, Garro!” King Nimbus called out to him as the crowd erupted in cheers again.  
“You’ve outdone yourself again, Garro!” Queen Nimbus called out to him as well.  
I think there’s something missing from all of this. Wait, I know! Mallow charged up and a rain shower began for a brief moment before the clouds parted to create a brilliant rainbow all around them. Feeling something was still missing Mallow charged up again and caused shooting stars to star falling, but unlike the ones he used on Smithy, these were completely harmless. King and Queen Nimbus stood beside him, and Prince Mallow Nimbus knew everything would be alright.


End file.
